ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. (OTCBB: IMUC), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing immune-based therapies for the treatment of brain and other cancers, announced today that it has filed a provisional patent application at US Patent Office seeking protection of intellectual property relating to novel glycosylated epitopes present in lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and colon cancer that are targeted by the Company’s ICT-109 monoclonal antibody product candidate. The patent application, entitled “Cell Surface Antigen for the Detection and Treatment of Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC), Pancreatic, and Colon Cancer,” relates to what the Company believes is a unique glycosidic composition of an antigen found on the surface of small cell lung cancer, colon cancer and pancreatic cancer, and covers methods for detecting, diagnosing, monitoring, staging, imaging and/or treating the cancers.
The patent application proposes to extend the intellectual property protection around ICT-109 by protecting proprietary glycosylated targets that are uniquely found in the aforementioned types of cancer and are associated with CEACAM5 and CEACAM6, two commonly targeted antigens in the public domain that are expressed in both healthy and malignant cells. These proprietary targets associated with CEACAM5 and CEACAM6, are uniquely expressed in cancerous cells, which allows ICT-109 to potentially differentiate between antigens present in normal benign tissue cells and those present in tumor cells, enabling the direct targeting of cancerous growths without harming healthy tissue.
“Protecting these novel targets is a key extension of the intellectual property surrounding ICT-109, as discovery of these targets associated with CEACAM5 and CEACAM6, which are specific to SCLC, colon and pancreatic cancers, enable us to design diagnostic and therapeutic products that should allow us to directly target malignant tissues without harming patients,” commented Manish Singh, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of IMUC. “Through protection of these proprietary targets, not only will we be able to differentiate our platform from competitors seeking to target related epitopes of CEACAM5 and CEACAM6, but we will also be able to identify these novel glycosylated structures. This should significantly assist us in attracting larger partners in the biotech or pharmaceutical space, where demand for antibodies employing novel targets is extremely high.”
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