Achieve Life Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACHV), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company committed to the global development and commercialization of cytisinicline for smoking cessation, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Achieve a patent (US 2020/0172544 A1) on novel analogs of cytisinicline, a process for their preparation, and their use in the prevention or treatment of CNS and addictive disorders.

Cytisinicline is a selective partial agonist of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), which underlies its activity in nicotine addiction. nACHRs are more broadly involved in a range of physiological functions, such as cognitive function, learning and memory, emotion and control of movement. The newly patented analogs provide the opportunity for selective targeting of nAChRs in the brain in order to treat a number of conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and addiction.

"While smoking cessation and nicotine addiction continue to be our primary focus, it is critically important that we continue to expand our intellectual property portfolio through patent extensions and future potential indications of cytisinicline," stated Rick Stewart, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Achieve.