On November 29, 2021 ERYTECH Pharma (Nasdaq & Euronext: ERYP), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies by encapsulating therapeutic drug substances inside red blood cells, reported the granting of US patent 11,141,468, covering methods of treating solid tumors by administering methioninase and asparaginase (Press release, ERYtech Pharma, NOV 29, 2021, View Source [SID1234596258]). In total, ERYTECH’s IP portfolio now includes 16 global patent families with over 310 patents and 45 applications. These patent families protect ERYTECH’s proprietary red blood cell encapsulation technology (ERYCAPS), its therapeutics for Oncology, Rare Metabolic Diseases, and Immune Modulation, as well as its methods for producing Cargo-Loaded Red Cell Extracellular Vesicles (CLRCEV).
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US 11,141,468, entitled "Method of treating a mammal, including human, against cancer using methionine and asparagine depletion", emphasizes ERYTECH’s continuing innovation in the delivery of safe and effective enzymatic activity for depriving tumors of essential nutrients. Corresponding family members have also recently been allowed in Europe, China, and Korea. As disclosed in the patent, ERYTECH scientists determined that certain solid tumors including gastric cancer were unexpectedly sensitized to treatment with asparaginase subsequent to prior treatment with methioninase. And while this finding highlights the complexity of the overarching "tumor starvation" approach, it also demonstrates the potential of the approach to weaken cancer cells, ideally rendering them more susceptible to lower levels of standard of care chemotherapies. Of note, the claims cover the method of treatment irrespective of whether the two enzymes are encapsulated in red blood cells.
ERYTECH currently has a patent portfolio of about 310 issued patents and over 45 pending patent applications worldwide covering 16 patent families. These patent families protect ERYTECH’s proprietary red blood cell encapsulation technology (ERYCAPS), its red cell-based clinical-stage product candidates in oncology, and its preclinical programs in rare metabolic diseases and immune modulation, as well as its methods for producing cargo-loaded red cell extracellular vesicles (CLRCEV).
Red blood cells are the most abundant cell type in the human body and their biology is characterized by a long lifespan and access to all tissues and organs. ERYTECH is a leader in red blood cell-based therapeutics, and its ERYCAPS platform enables the industrial scale encapsulation of active drug substances inside red blood cells using hypotonic loading. The ERYCAPS process maintains robust red blood cell functionality, and red blood cell-encapsulated enzymes have the potential to exhibit substantially improved safety and extended half-life versus non-encapsulated enzymes.