MabVax Therapeutics announced the company has been issued Patent No. 9,856,324 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a patent titled, "HUMAN MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES TO GANGLIOSIDE GD2."
This is the second patent issued in the antibody portfolio created through MabVax's unique discovery platform, which uses blood samples from patients vaccinated with selected tumor associated carbohydrate antigens. The recovery of human antibodies directly from vaccinated cancer patients makes the antibodies discovered by MabVax highly unique and potentially useful while reducing the kinds of toxicities induced by non-human antibodies. Similar to the company's sialyl lewis A (sLea) and Thomsen-nouveau (Tn) antigen targeting antibodies, the ganglioside GD2 targeting antibodies have the potential to be developed as therapeutic and diagnostic products. Additional disease targets for anti-GD2 antibodies include sarcoma, melanoma, and neuroblastoma.
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"The issuance of this patent represents another valuable intellectual property asset brought forward by MabVax and is an important component of our unique discovery strategy and expands our robust patent estate. Importantly, this filing is timely as we evaluate additional product candidates that have the potential to address significant unmet needs in the treatment of cancers to fuel our pipeline and expand our partnering discussions," said David Hansen, MabVax's President and Chief Executive Officer.
The company has already made substantial progress required to translate the GD2 preclinical development program into clinical development. In collaboration with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, data from the preclinical development program were presented as a poster at the World Molecular Imaging Conference last year. The results of the study demonstrated the anti-GD2 antibodies had high specificity and antibody drug conjugates based on these antibodies were readily internalized and cytotoxic. Immuno-PET agents developed with these antibodies showed good accumulation on osteosarcoma tumors and demonstrated potential utility as a diagnostic imaging agent.