SAN DIEGO, CA, Dec. 25, 2019 – Multimeric Biotherapeutics, Inc. (“Multimeric” or the “Company”), a biotechnology company developing immunotherapies and vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer, today announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued Patent No. EP 2 970 427 B1, entitled “Composition Comprised of Antigen Linked to a TNF Superfamily Ligand.” Joint inventors are Geoffrey W. Stone and Richard S. Kornbluth.
The abstract in the patent application describes the invention as follows: “The invention provides fusion proteins comprising antigens of infectious disease agents and cancer cells linked to multiple-trimer forms of TNF SuperFamily (TNFSF) ligands. The TNFSFs serve as vaccine adjuvants for increas-ing the immune response to the antigens. In particular, a fusion polypeptide strand that self-assembles inside cells into a multiple- trimer form of CD40 ligand (CD40L) is provided. Other similar fusion proteins are also disclosed. The fusion proteins can be delivered to a host as isolated proteins, as nucleic acids used directly in DNA vaccination or carried and expressed by a viral vector such as adenovirus. In addition to use as a vaccine to prevent or ameliorate disease caused by an infectious agent, compositions of the invention may be used for the treatment of ongoing infection or for cancer immunotherapy.”
The experimental work supporting the patent application was performed in Dr. Stone’s lab at the University of Miami.
Richard S. Kornbluth, MD, PhD, Co-Inventor and Multimeric’s President & Chief Scientific Officer, commented: “CD8+ T cells are a special type of lymphocyte that are able to recognize and kill infected cells and cancer cells. It has been difficult to develop vaccines that elicit strong CD8+ T cell-based immunity. This has been an important need in order to develop cancer vaccines and vaccines against viruses and other microbes. This new composition-of-matter patent in Europe now protects Multimeric’s FortiVac platform technology for CD8+ T cells.