On March 4, 2021 Anixa Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANIX), a biotechnology company focused on the treatment and prevention of cancer and infectious disease reported that the European Patent Office has issued the first European patent for Anixa’s novel CAR-T cancer treatment technology, which has been licensed from The Wistar Institute and is being developed in partnership with Moffitt Cancer Center (Press release, Anixa Biosciences, MAR 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234576076]).
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The patent is titled, "METHODS AND COMPOSITIONS FOR TREATING CANCER," and the inventors are Drs. Jose Conejo-Garcia and Alfredo Perales-Puchalt, both formerly of The Wistar Institute. Dr. Conejo-Garcia is currently Chair of the Department of Immunology at Moffitt Cancer Center and Dr. Alfredo Perales-Puchalt is currently Vice President of R&D at Geneos Therapeutics. The patent is assigned to The Wistar Institute and Anixa Biosciences’ majority-owned subsidiary, Certainty Therapeutics, Inc., which is the exclusive, world-wide licensee.
Dr. Amit Kumar, President and CEO of Anixa Biosciences, stated, "We are pleased that the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued this patent. This patent will provide protection of our technology throughout the European Union, in addition to the existing protection from our issued patent in the United States. Our CAR-T cancer technology takes advantage of specific hormone–hormone receptor biology to address malignancies and may hold promise to be the first successful CAR-T therapy against solid tumors. While our initial focus is the treatment of ovarian cancer, the technology is broad and may also be effective in treating other solid tumors by exploiting an anti-angiogenesis mechanism of action."
Heather A. Steinman, PhD, MBA, Vice President of Business Development at The Wistar Institute said, "Issuance of this European patent along with the previously issued U.S. patent is a critical step in the advancement of our CAR-T technology, which has been exclusively licensed to Anixa’s subsidiary, Certainty Therapeutics, Inc. As a collaborator of and minority shareholder in Certainty, we support the continuing advancement of this novel, targeted immunotherapy into the clinic where we hope one day it may help provide alternative treatment choices for ovarian and other cancer patients."
Dr. Kumar continued, "We are expecting to file an IND application for our ovarian cancer CAR-T therapy by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2021. After we receive clearance from the FDA, we will begin the clinical studies at Moffitt Cancer Center."