Intellectual PropertyBiotransformations has established an IP base in light activation of targeted antibodies, which could support a platform business exploiting existing monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) in collaboration with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Each product would be expected to generate specific product related patents so providing a long product life. Planned research programmes aim to further develop the cloaking technology to allow easier production of multiple products.
BTL has intellectual property that covers two approaches to masking the binding sites on Mabs: the first technique involves the chemical modification of preformed Mabs and the second technique is to insert a light-activatable amino acid into the binding site using molecular biology techniques.
The first and most basic of BTLs patent applications covering cloaking of proteins has gone to grant in the United Kingdom and is being prosecuted in the USA. The second application and directly relevant to antibody products is being prosecuted in the European Union, USA and Japan and has now received a positive Preliminary International Assessment. The patent prosecutions are being conducted by Greenberg Traurig in the USA and by Mewburn Ellis in Europe and Japan.
The patents and applications cover the following:
+ The protection of the active sites of molecular entities such as Mabs, with a photo-cleavable molecule and the subsequent activation of that molecular entity in-vivo by the use of light;
+ Bispecific antibodies in which a binding capability is reversibly inhibited by a photo-cleavable moiety.
These patents and applications give the Company an exclusive position in the field of activatable, particularly photo-activatable, bispecific antibodies and monospecific antibodies combined with other targeting moieties. The cover from the original patent case extends to photo-activation of molecules, other than bi-specific antibodies.