Date: 05-Oct-2021

Anixa Biosciences CAR-T Cancer Therapy Receives Additional US Patent

Anixa Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company, announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance broadening protection of Anixa's novel Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T cell (CAR-T) cancer treatment technology, known as its Chimeric Endocrine Receptor T-cell, or CER-T approach, or more specifically, "Follicle Stimulating Hormone Receptor-Mediated CAR-T technology," which has been licensed from The Wistar Institute and is being developed in partnership with Moffitt Cancer Center.

The patent is titled, "Methods and Compositions for Treating Cancer," and the inventors are Drs. Jose Conejo-Garcia and Alfredo Perales-Puchalt, both formerly of The Wistar Institute.  Dr. Conejo-Garcia is Chair of the Department of Immunology at Moffitt Cancer Center and Dr. Perales-Puchalt is vice president of R&D at Geneos Therapeutics.  The patent is assigned to The Wistar Institute and Anixa Biosciences' majority-owned subsidiary, Certainty Therapeutics, Inc. is the exclusive, world-wide licensee.  This patent is in the family of the originally granted patent, and it covers additional intellectual property related to Anixa's CAR-T technology.

Dr Amit Kumar, president and CEO of Anixa Biosciences, stated, "We are pleased to receive this notice from the USPTO, confirming additional protection of our novel CAR-T cancer treatment technology.  This technology takes advantage of specific hormone-to-hormone receptor biology to address malignancies and holds promise to be the first successful CAR-T therapy against solid tumors.  While our initial focus is the treatment of ovarian cancer—with clinical trials expected to begin before year-end—the technology covered by the patent is broad and may have applicability in treating other solid tumors by exploiting an anti-angiogenesis mechanism of action."

Anixa's Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T cell (CAR-T) Technology approach, known as "Follicle Stimulating Hormone Receptor (FSHR)-mediated CAR-T technology," is an autologous cell therapy comprised of engineered T-cells that target the follicle stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR).  FSHR is found at immunologically relevant levels exclusively on the granulosa cells of the ovaries.  Since the target is a hormone receptor, and the target-binding domain is derived from its natural ligand, this technology is also known as CER-T (Chimeric Endocrine Receptor T-cell) therapy, a new type of CAR-T.  

The therapy based on this technology was recently authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for phase 1 clinical testing.

Anixa is a publicly-traded biotechnology company developing a number of programs addressing cancer and infectious disease.