On December 20, 2016 Cellectar Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLRB) (the "company"), an oncology-focused clinical stage biotechnology company, reported two patent allowances for imaging agents delivered via the company’s patented PDC platform (Filing, 8-K, Cellectar Biosciences, DEC 20, 2016, View Source [SID1234517150]). The United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") issued patent allowances covering method of use for CLR 124 in the detection of radiation- and chemo-insensitive cancer or cancer metastases. Concurrently, the Japanese patent office granted a composition of matter allowance covering two optical imaging agents in the CLR 1500 series.
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"While we remain focused on the development of our phospholipid drug conjugate, or PDC, delivery technology for therapeutic applications, our imaging assets and platform capability represents an excellent partnership opportunity," said Jim Caruso, president and CEO of Cellectar. "The continued expansion of our intellectual property portfolio provides additional protection and increases the value of our delivery platform to potential partners."
The USPTO allowance for CLR 124 pertains to the detection of radiation- and chemo-insensitive cancer or cancer metastasis specifically using PET, SPECT or gamma camera scintigraphy, as well as quantitative 3-D imaging with PET/MRI. These allowed claims are a continuation in part of US Patent No. 8,877,160 with coverage extending until March 2, 2025. The Japanese composition of matter allowance for the CLR 1500 series agents using the company’s PDC platform was allowed by the Japanese Patent Office for two additional optical imaging agents for intraoperative imaging of tumors and tumor margins. These CLR 1500 compounds are from a divisional application from JP 5702366 with coverage extending through May 11, 2030.
About Phospholipid Drug Conjugates (PDCs)
Cellectar’s product candidates are built upon its patented cancer cell-targeting delivery and retention platform of optimized phospholipid ether-drug conjugates (PDCs). The company deliberately designed its phospholipid ether (PLE) carrier platform to be coupled with a variety of payloads to facilitate both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. The basis for selective tumor targeting of our PDC compounds lies in the differences between the plasma membranes of cancer cells compared to those of normal cells. Cancer cell membranes are highly enriched in lipid rafts, which are glycolipoprotein microdomains of the plasma membrane of cells that contain high concentrations of cholesterol and sphingolipids, and serve to organize cell surface and intracellular signaling molecules. PDCs have been tested in over 70 different xenograft models of cancer.