Japanese Patent Office Issues Decision to Grant Patent for EndoDrill Technology

The cancer diagnostics company BiBBInstruments AB ("BiBB" or the "Company"), the developer of the world's first market-cleared electric-driven endoscopic core biopsy instrument, announces that the Company has received a Decision to Grant from the Japan Patent Office (JPO). This means that JPO has decided to approve the Company's first patent application in Japan for EndoDrill^®. A few additional formal steps will follow before a patent is finally issued, after which the granted patent will be valid until October 2039.

BIBB has received a Decision to Grant from the JPO for its patent application 2021-518087, which provides a broad protection of the EndoDrill^® system, the Company's electric-driven biopsy instrument for advanced endoscopy. BiBB has three international patent applications for EndoDrill^®, which have entered the national/regional phase and in 2023 BiBB received the approval of two patents in Europe. The EndoDrill^® system has recently been market cleared in Europe and in the U.S. and the lead product EndoDrill^® GI is currently under clinical evaluations in the U.S. 

"This Decision to Grant our first patent in Japan is strategically important for us as a company and positive for patients and care providers in Japan. Japan is one of the largest markets for our target segment, endoscopic ultrasound, and Japanese companies dominate the world market in terms of sales of reusable endoscopes.”, says Fredrik Lindblad, CEO of BiBB.

This is a translation of the Swedish press release. If there should be any discrepancies, the Swedish language version prevails.

For more information about BiBB, please contact:
Fredrik Lindblad, CEO
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +46 70 899 94 86
www.bibbinstruments.com

This disclosure contains information that BiBBInstruments AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, on February 21, 2024.

About BiBB

The cancer diagnostics company BiBBInstruments AB develops and manufactures EndoDrill®, a patented product line of electric-driven endoscopic biopsy instruments. The EndoDrill^® instruments take high-quality tissue samples with high precision with the goal of improving the diagnosis of several serious cancers, such as stomach, pancreas, liver, lung, and bladder. The product portfolio is aimed at the global market for ultrasound-guided endoscopic (EUS/EBUS) biopsy instruments, which constitute the most advanced and fast-growing area of endoscopy. BiBB received 510(k) clearance from the US FDA for the lead product EndoDrill^® GI in 2023. At the beginning of 2024, CE marking according to MDR was also obtained for all three product variants: EndoDrill^® GI, EndoDrill^® EBUS and EndoDrill^® URO. Thus EndoDrill^® is the first cleared electric endoscopic biopsy system in both the US and Europe. The EndoDrill^® system includes sterile disposable biopsy instruments with associated drive system. The company was founded in 2013 by Dr. Charles Walther, cancer researcher at Lund University and senior consultant in clinical pathology at Skåne University Hospital in Lund. BiBBInstruments is based at Medicon Village in Lund and the BiBBInstruments share (ticker: BIBB) is listed on Spotlight Stock Market.