On February 1, 2018 Planegg – Medigene AG (MDG1, Frankfurt, Prime Standard), a clinical stage immune-oncology company focusing on the development of T cell immuno-therapies for the treatment of cancer, reported the grant of US patent 9,862,755 by the US Patent Office (USPTO) covering a high affinity T cell receptor with an epitope tag (Press release, MediGene, FEB 1, 2018, View Source [SID1234523689]).
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
Applying an epitope tag to a high affinity T cell receptor potentially allows ex vivo and in vitro assessment of adoptively transferred T cell therapeutics. Potential applications of this technology could include the tracking of TCR-modified T cells through all steps of patient-individualized cell manufacturing processes, monitoring of TCR-modified T cells after administration to patients for proliferation and persistence in blood and tissue samples and removing of such tagged T cells through antibodies.
Medigene holds an exclusive license to the patent that was issued to Helmholtz Zentrum Munich and Max-Delbrück-Centrum for Molecular Medicine in Berlin.
Prof. Dolores Schendel, CEO and CSO of Medigene and co-inventor of the underlying technology, explains: "This US patent complements our broad patent portfolio in the space of T cell immunotherapies and represents one of many examples of the kinds of precise tools that Medigene is developing. This patent also supports our long-term thinking on using T cell-specific antibodies, TABs, as designer tools with multiple potential uses. TABs will help us to develop better and safer products in the future."
About Medigene’s TCR technology: The TCR technology aims at arming the patient’s own T cells with tumor-specific T-cell receptors. The receptor-modified T cells are then able to detect and efficiently kill tumor cells. This immunotherapy approach attempts to overcome the patient’s tolerance towards cancer cells and tumor-induced immunosuppression by activating and modifying the patient’s T cells outside the body (ex vivo).
Medigene AG (FSE: MDG1, ISIN DE000A1X3W00, Prime Standard, TecDAX) is a publicly listed biotechnology company headquartered in Martinsried near Munich, Germany. The company is developing highly innovative immunotherapies to target various forms and stages of cancer. Medigene concentrates on the development of personalized T cell-based therapies, with associated projects currently in pre-clinical and clinical development.