BiBBInstruments AB announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) has finally approved two patent applications for EndoDrill®. The patents provide broad protection of the EndoDrill® system until 2038 and 2039, respectively. The approvals relate to patent applications EP19780264.8 and EP18199230.6 from patent family 1 and follow previous Intention to Grants from the EPO announced in First Quarter 2023.

The patents protect the EndoDrill® product series, the market-cleared electric-driven biopsy instrument for endoscopy. BiBB also has three international patent applications for EndoDrill®, which has entered the national/regional phase. EndoDrill® is in clinical phase and approaching commercialization.

The product family is aimed at hospitals working with advanced ultrasound endoscopy (EUS/EBUS), to improve diagnostics in some of the most serious cancers, such as stomach, pancreas, liver, lung, and bladder cancer. FDA-cleared EndoDrill® gives endoscopists increased opportunities to take high-quality coherent core biopsies in suspected tumors. An intact tissue sample contains more information, which can be crucial for accurate and complete diagnosis as well as the earliest possible start of treatment.

The completed clinical pilot study with EndoDrill® GI (EDMX01) showed 100% diagnostic accuracy when analyzing the samples. EndoDrill® utilizes a patented electric-driven rotating needle cylinder that provides high-precision tissue samples of higher diagnostic quality than existing manually handled EUS biopsy instruments.