DOMANTIS EXPANDS BROAD ANTIBODY PATENT POSITION
New US Patent & European Patent Resolution Strengthen Domantis’ Dominance in Domain Antibodies
Cambridge, UK and US, 1 March 2004… Domantis Limited, the leading Domain Antibody company, announced today that it has been granted US Patent 6,696,245, the most recent in a series of new patents and applications that consolidate and strengthen the Company’s dominant intellectual property position on Domain Antibodies.
US Patent 6,696,245, which is owned by Domantis, covers methods of selecting functional proteins from large protein libraries, including the selection of functional antibody fragments. These methods represent a significant improvement over existing techniques and enable the isolation of much more potent drug leads. Domantis is using this technology to discover Domain Antibody drugs for human therapy.
Domantis’ position on Domain Antibodies has also been strengthened by the successful resolution of an opposition in European Patent Office for EP 0368684. This patent (the “Winter II” patent) is exclusively licensed to Domantis by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) for the field of Domain Antibody products. The final European Patent Office opposition appeal decision maintains the original broad claim coverage for the cloning and expression libraries of Domain Antibody sequences. The Winter II patent portfolio also includes US application Serial No 2003/0130496 with claims for heavy (VH) and light (VL) chain Domain Antibodies per se.
The new US patent and Winter II European patent are part of a series of broad and important patent rights that protect Domantis’ proprietary position on Domain Antibodies. Domantis’ licence from the MRC includes US Patents 6,291,158; 6,582,915; and 6,593,081 with broad claims to libraries and methods of selecting the VH or VL sequences of antibodies.
In addition, Domantis is the owner of a number of patent applications, based on the work of its scientific founders and employees that significantly expand its proprietary position for Domain Antibodies. These applications include US Serial No 2002/0164642 and EP Application number 1025218 that cover libraries of antibody fragments based on the most common antibody gene sequences and WO 04/003019 and WO 03/002609 that cover the use of Domain Antibodies to create dual targeting antibodies including drugs that have extended half life by binding serum albumin.
‘The grant of this US patent and the successful resolution of the Winter II European patent opposition expands and reinforces Domantis’ dominant patent position in the field of antibody fragments, including all types of Domain Antibodies’, said Domantis’ CEO, Robert Connelly. ‘ We are continuing to file on inventions arising from the early antibody engineering discoveries of our founders, Dr Greg Winter and Dr Ian Tomlinson and more recent research by scientists at Domantis, who are creating therapeutic Domain Antibody products’.
Domain Antibodies combine the best attributes of small molecule drugs (formulation and delivery versatility, broad target range, low cost) with those of full antibodies (enormous diversity, high specificity, lower toxicity). Domantis is using human Domain Antibody libraries to develop a number of therapeutic product candidates.
For more information contact
Bob Connelly – Domantis – +1 617 225 0600
Nicki Brimicombe – NB PR +44 1883 732353
Notes to Editors
Domantis is a drug discovery company which is exploiting its proprietary dominance in Domain Antibodies to deliver human therapies which address large, unmet medical needs including inflammation (eg asthma and Crohn’s disease), infection, cancer (solid tumours) and cardiac disorders. In less than three years it has established 12 therapeutic programmes, several of which should be in clinical trials by 2006. The company is also proving an attractive therapeutic partner for the pharmaceutical industry. It has already struck deals with Peptech, Abbott and Imclone and it anticipates that several additional revenue generating partnerships involving its proprietary therapeutic dAbs will be in place by 2006.
Therapeutic antibodies are a major commercial opportunity. 14 monoclonal antibodies have been approved for use to date and these are expected to generate sales exceeding $9 billion by 2006. dAbs combine the best attributes of small molecule drugs (formulation and delivery versatility, broad target range, low costs) with those of full antibodies (enormous diversity, high specificity, lower toxicity). Thus they have very broad therapeutic relevance. The UK Medical Research Council (MRC) has granted substantial, exclusive rights relating to human dAbs, such that Domantis is the only company able to fully exploit these molecules for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.
Domantis was launched in December 2000 by Dr Greg Winter (also co-founder of Cambridge Antibody Technology) and Dr Ian Tomlinson, who are globally recognized leaders in antibody technology. To date Domantis has raised $54 million from investors including 3i, Gray Ghost (Baltimore, US), Albany Ventures, MVM Limited (London, UK) and Peptech Limited. Domantis employs 40 staff and has laboratory facilities in Cambridge, UK and commercial offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA... |
