Neogenix Oncology announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trade Mark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for a patent application related to its 16C3 antibody. Discovered and developed by Neogenix Oncology, this antibody appears to have anti-tumor activity for both pancreatic and colorectal tumors, and may have both therapeutic and diagnostic utility. The antibody may have activity in other tumors as well, which the company will explore at such time as it prepares a pre-IND package for FDA review and designs a clinical trial for the 16C3 antibody. This patent will cover the third antibody line held by the Company.
"This marks yet another important step forward in our efforts to discover and develop novel new antibodies for the diagnosis and treatment of a range of cancers. We have been impressed with the properties of 16C3 as it appears to be a potent antibody, and with a unique target. Although it acts through the ADCC mechanism for tumor killing, it appears to have additional mechanisms for tumor kill, making it a very exciting antibody. We believe that 16C3 has the potential to become an important new diagnostic and therapeutic tool in the fight against pancreatic and colorectal cancer." said Neogenix President and Chief Executive Officer, Philip M. Arlen, MD.
The USPTO has previously granted a patent for the company's lead monoclonal antibody NPC-1C (ensituximab), and claims in a related divisional patent application have been allowed relating to the genes encoding the novel molecular aspects of NPC-1C.
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