Courtagen Life Sciences, Inc., an endocannabinoid platform and molecular information company, announced that the company has received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its patent application no. 14/895,557, titled "Methods and Kits for Treating and Classifying Individuals at Risk of or Suffering from TRAP1 Change-of-Function."

The patent application addresses a complementary or companion diagnostic approach for a potential drug target related to a genetic form of chronic pain that may be present in approximately 1% of the population. The recently published crystal structure of the TRAP1 gene has enabled the company to conduct protein variant predictions, which have highlighted several compounds that fit within the mutated ATPase domain, including notably, cannabidiol from the hemp and cannabis plants.

"We believe the future of medicine is genome-directed, and with over 90 daily fatalities due to the opioid epidemic, a genetically stratified solution to the urgent problem now can be explored," stated Kevin McKernan, Chief Science Officer of Courtagen Life Sciences. "It’s important to reinforce that our policy is to never exert patent rights against patients. In fact, we believe this patent will allow us to accelerate method and technology development for this personalized medicine marker in a market with large incumbents, to bring a solution to patients suffering from chronic pain."