In June 2008, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “USPTO”) issued to the Company a Notice of Allowance for a non-provisional patent application titled “Methods and Compositions for Deterring Abuse of Opioid Containing Dosage Forms”.  A U.S. patent relating to this Notice of Allowance will be granted after the Company pays the required patent issue fees.  This provides the Company with 21 new allowed patent claims intended to enhance and broaden the patent coverage provided by the 54 issued claims in the Company's first patent relating to deterring abuse of opioids.

In April 2007, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “USPTO”) issued to the Company U.S. Patent No. 7,201,920 titled ”Methods and Compositions for Deterring Abuse of Opioid Containing Dosage Forms”.   The 54 allowed patent claims encompass  pharmaceutical compositions intended to reduce or discourage the three most common methods of prescription opioid analgesic product misuse and abuse (the Company's "Aversion® Technology") including; (i) intravenous injection of dissolved tablets or capsules; (ii) snorting of crushed tablets or capsules and; (iii) intentionally swallowing excess quantities of tablets or capsules.  The opioid analgesics in the issued patent claims include oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, morphine, codeine, tramadol, propoxyphene and many others.  

In addition to the Notice of Allowance and the issued U.S. Patent No. 7,201,920, the Company has pending four U.S. non-provisional patent applications, three WO/PCT patent applications and multiple additional U.S. provisional and international patent filings relating to compositions containing abuseable drugs.

At present, except for the rights conferred in the King Agreement, the Company retains ownership of all intellectual property and commercial rights to its Aversion® Technology and related product candidates.