US-based biopharmaceutical company Immunomedics has announced the issuance of a US patent to its majority-owned subsidiary, IBC Pharmaceuticals, for ‘Novel Strategies for Improved Cancer Vaccines’.
The new patent concerns methods and compositions for forming anti-cancer vaccine complexes created with the company's proprietary DOCK-AND-LOCK DNL method.
The allowed claims cover the use of bispecific antibodies targeting CD74, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class-II invariant chain, Ii, of immune cells, and CD20 to form a vaccine complex.
Because immune cells such as dendritic cells express high levels of CD74, the bispecific antibody-vaccine complex is capable of inducing an immune response against CD20-expressing cancer cells, killing, inhibiting the growth of, or eliminating the cancer cells.
Immunomedics president CEO Cynthia L Sullivan noted this is an important patent protecting a new vaccine technology targeting dendritic cells for blood cancer treatment.
"This method also has the potential of including the use of a cytokine, such as interleukin-2, interleukin-12, or gamma-interferon," Sullivan added.
This patent will expire in March 2026.