Tharos, nice post, it was new information for me. Think we tend to forget XOMA does have a following among the letter writers. Easy to forget that it is important that MacCamant talked up ICOS. He is the person quoted in Business Week. People will pay more attention to what he says and he is a XOMA fan and the odds are good that he will mention XOMA in the future under circumstances where the stock could be favorably impacted from one moment to the next.
It is normal to want more information and news every single day. I sure would like to know what products are being produced under the cell expression agreements each time XOMA is involved in a position to receive royalties. But something new does not happen every day. The press release on the new patents needs to be read again and again. So the market did not react immediately, I think one should remember the market was slow to react for Viagra, ENMD, ICOS, SEPR,CORR and many others. It is difficult to know if and when the market will take note.
New Patents
In the first quarter of 1998, XOMA was issued four patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, covering four
different areas of XOMA technology development.
XOMA has discovered new therapeutic activities of BPI (bactericidal/permeability-increasing) protein products,
including preventing clot formation and enhancing clot dissolution. These activities could be applied to the
treatment of thrombotic disorders, such as coronary artery thrombosis (blockage of heart vessels associated
with heart attacks). (U.S. Patent No. 5,741,779, issued April 21, 1998).
A second patent provides protection for therapeutic products derived from LBP. LBP
(lipopolysaccharide-binding protein) is a molecule in the same lipid-binding family as BPI. Although both
molecules bind to LPS (lipopolysaccharide or endotoxin), LBP, unlike BPI, also interacts with CD14
molecules which leads to stimulation of the inflammatory response. The patent claims include hybrid proteins
that bind to and neutralize LPS, but lack the immunostimulatory activity of LBP. These BPI-LBP hybrids could
be used to develop new products to treat gram-negative bacterial infections. (U.S. Patent No. 5,731,415 issued
March 24, 1998).
XOMA has extended its patent protection for new pharmaceutical compositions of biologically-active peptides
derived from the three functional domains discovered by a XOMA scientist in the BPI molecule. The new
claims relate to peptides that have at least one of the biological activities of BPI, e.g., bactericidal,
heparin-neutralizing or LPS-neutralizing. This covers all of XOMA's BPI-derived peptide programs including
antiangiogenesis, antibacterial, antiendotoxin, and antifungal. (U.S. Patent No. 5,773,872 issued March 31,
1998).
The fourth patent relates to XOMA's fusion protein technology. Fusion proteins are made up of a targeting
component that delivers the protein to a particular cell type and a cytotoxic component that kills the targeted cell.
They could be used to treat cancers or autoimmune diseases. In XOMA's targeted immunofusion (TIF)
product, Genimune(tm) a humanized antibody-derived targeting component is genetically fused to XOMA's
proprietary cytotoxin, rGelonin. The recombinant fusion product is designed to target and kill human T cells to
treat certain autoimmune diseases and immune system cancers. The new patent extends protection to targeting
molecules derived from antibodies, hormones, lymphokines and growth factors. Genimune(tm) and the TIF
technology are part of XOMA's technology outlicensing program. (U.S. Patent No. 5,744,580, issued April
28, 1998)
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