New medical patent covering the generation of genetically enhanced therapeutic antigens

Morphotek, Inc. announced today the issuance of United States Patent 6,737,268 covering the generation of genetically enhanced therapeutic antigens. The issued patent covers the use of the company's proprietary platform process, morphogenics, to rapidly evolve host cells expressing therapeutic proteins to yield sublines expressing variant gene products with enhanced immunogenic properties for the creation of efficacious vaccines.

Dr. Nicholas Nicolaides, President and Chief Executive Officer of Morphotek, commented, "This patent is one in a series of applications that have recently issued that cover the use of our morphogenics technology to rapidly generate novel pharmaceutical products.

The technology protected by this application has wide implications for the industry and describes methods that can be applied to develop novel or superior next generation vaccines for therapy." "The invention described in this patent outlines a very powerful variation of morphogenics to generate genetic diversity within any target antigen of interest," added Dr. Philip M. Sass, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, "and demonstrates the ability to obtain highly antigenic polypeptides from those that are poorly antigenic.

Its utility offers a robust process to create innovative therapies for cancer, inflammation and infectious diseases." Morphotek(R) Inc. is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of protein and antibody products through the use of a proprietary in vivo gene evolution technology.

The technology has been successfully applied to a broad variety of cell lines and organisms to yield genetically diverse offspring that are suitable for pharmaceutical product development in the areas of antibody therapeutics, protein therapeutics, product manufacturing, drug target discovery, and improved output traits for commercial applications.

The company is currently focusing its platform on the development and manufacturing of therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and infectious disease. For further company information visit http://www.morphotek.com.