Concert Pharmaceuticals Granted Patents on Deuterium-Modified Compounds

LEXINGTON, Mass -- Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that its first patents have been granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. These patents relate to specific compounds derived from Concert’s deuterium chemistry platform. U.S. Patents 7,514,068 and 7,528,131 specifically claim deuterium analogs of rimonabant and mosapride, respectively. In addition to these patents, Concert has over 100 pending U.S. patent applications and corresponding applications worldwide.

“The issuance of these patents that claim deuterium-modified analogs of rimonabant and mosapride as novel compositions of matter illustrates the patentability of our deuterium-modified compounds and further validates the value of our approach,” stated Roger Tung, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Concert Pharmaceuticals. “We believe these two patents are the first of many that will be granted on compounds derived from our deuterium chemistry platform.”

About Deuterium

Deuterium is a safe, non-radioactive relative of hydrogen that can be isolated from sea water and has been used extensively in human metabolic and clinical studies. Since deuterium resembles hydrogen, deuterium-containing compounds are expected to preserve the pharmacological activity of their hydrogen analogs. An important difference is that deuterium is heavier than hydrogen and therefore forms a stronger chemical bond to a carbon atom of a drug. The stronger chemical bond obtained by selective deuterium modification in select instances may substantially improve the drug’s metabolic properties, potentially resulting in better safety, tolerability and/or efficacy.

About Concert

Concert Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the application of deuterium chemistry to create novel small molecule drugs. Concert’s approach leverages known activity and safety of existing drugs to reduce time, risk and expense of drug research and development. The Company has a broad research pipeline encompassing many therapeutic areas including renal disease, infectious disease, and cardiovascular disease, among others. Its lead development candidate is the HIV protease inhibitor CTP-518. Founded in 2006, Concert has raised more than $96 million from leading venture capitalists and institutional investors. For more information on Concert Pharmaceuticals, please visit www.concertpharma.com.