patent: ocular rosacea and `acne rosacea’ treated together

Written by David Pascoe on May 17, 2006 in Ocular Rosacea, Oracea (40mg doxycycline), patents with 0 Comments

So called low dose doxycycline, and treating rosacea has had some good research published in recent years. The treatment dose is low enough to not have antibiotic ability, but still give a therapeutic benefit. Tetracyclines have also been used successfully to treat ocular rosacea symptoms. This patent covers the ability to co-treat rosacea and ocular rosacea together.

One would think that such a patent would be obvious, but apparently “no one has disclosed the simultaneous treatment of both disorders”.

The patent application suggests several dosage regimes of non-antibiotic doses of tetracyclines.

Examples of the maximum non-antibiotic doses of tetracyclines based on steady-state pharmacokinetics are as follows: 20 mg/twice a day for doxycycline; 38 mg of minocycline one, two, three or four times a day; and 60 mg of tetracycline one, two, three or four times a day.

So here we can see what amount is considered to be “low dosage” for several antibiotics.

A brief summary of the patent ;

A method for simultaneously treating ocular rosacea and acne rosacea in a human in need thereof comprising administering systemically to said human a tetracycline compound in an amount that is effective to treat ocular rosacea and acne rosacea but has substantially no antibiotic activity.

Patent Details

Update: note that this patent is owned by a VP of Collagenex, the makers of Oracea. Oracea is 40mg a day low-dose-doxycycline treatment. Collagenex claim to hold up to 6 patents related to Oracea.