Tuesday, 14th August, Melbourne, Australia: Prima Biomed Limited (ASX: PRR) today announced that an Australian Patent has been granted to it providing proprietary rights to the therapeutic application of anti-cancer antibodies targeting the tumour antigen, cripto-1.
Prima has also recently received a notice of allowance in a corresponding US patent application, which is expected to issue as a patent in due course.
This is an important outcome for the company with this technology as there is international competition for cripto-1 antibodies and the granting of the patent clearly defines the broad scope of Prima’s protection.
The patent titled, Antibodies Against Cancer, Patent Number 2002240719, claims priority from 26 March 2001 and has an expiry date of 26 March 2022. The patent describes antibodies that target cripto-1, a tumour marker that is over-expressed in cancer cells, making it an attractive target for therapy. The antibodies described in the patent have been shown to inhibit tumour cell growth and induce apoptosis (cell death) in cancer cells. The antibodies work synergistically with chemotherapy agents offering improved cancer cell killing.
In 2003, Prima’s wholly owned subsidiary Oncomab Pty. Ltd., entered into an agreement with Medarex Inc (USA) to develop human antibodies to cripto-1 after promising levels of anti-tumour activity were demonstrated with prototype, rat-based antibodies. Medarex and Oncomab have recently completed the first stage of preclinical in vivo analysis of the human antibodies.
The grant of the patent in Australia is the second to be granted in the patent family with prosecution continuing in all other key territories. The first grant of the patent was in New Zealand.
WOW, what an increase! Over 300%. Spectacular.
No one got that for the August stock picking contest!
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