ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,467,070, issued on Nov. 11, was assigned to Indena S.P.A. (Milan).
"Semisynthetic process for the preparation of colchicine" was invented by Fabio Donzelli (Milan), Pietro Allegrini (Milan), Alessandro Andreani (Milan), Andrea Gambini (Milan) and Davide Berlanda (Milan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The invention relates to a process for the preparation of colchicine 1 from colchicoside 2 which comprises enzymatic conversion of colchicoside 2 to 3-O-demethylcolchicine 3, wherein the enzyme used is a cellulase. According to another aspect of the invention, 3-O-demethylcolchicine 3 can be converted to colchicine 1 using an alkylating agent...