To all: atlantis over on stockhouse.ca posted the following article on Stressgen's new U.S. patent:
Stressgen Gets Patent Approval
by David Leidl
January 15, 2002
"With two broad-based and complementary U.S. patents now firmly in hand, Stressgen Biotechnologies Corporation (TSE: T.SSB) is now on the hunt for a big corporate partner to help take its novel ‘heat shock’ disease-killing proteins to market.
At 1:16 p.m. ET, T.SSB was up 1.3% or 7 cents Canadian to C$5.47 on volume of 48,201 shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Its 52-week range is C$2.77 and C$7.19. (US$1 equals C$1.60)
Today, Stressgen announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office had issued a second "composition of matter" patent that builds upon the "method of use" patent issued earlier this month. Together, the two pieces of paper protect the biotech company’s exclusive worldwide license for the compositions comprising heat shock fusion proteins, as well as the DNA encoding for such fusion proteins, and methods for manufacturing fusion proteins.
The patent contains broad claims that cover fusion proteins comprised of a stress protein a.k.a. heat-shock protein (Hsp) fused to any antigen. Further, there are specific claims to fusion proteins comprised of heat-shock proteins fused to viral, cancer or HIV antigens.
In short, if you want heat-shock proteins, talk to Stressgen.
Stress or Hsp proteins play a fundamental role in life processes and as such, are of great interest to researchers in many areas of biology and medicine. These proteins are also of great interest to the immune system. Fixed on the rind of such invading pathogens such as bacteria, parasites and fungi, these proteins are recognized by immune system. In a race to beat the invaders, the immune system gears up its defenses and begins producing disease-specific antibodies and/or killer T-cells.
In the ensuring fight, the heat-shock proteins also help the defenders identify, grab hold of and clobber the invaders. In particular, one type of immune response, mediated by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) or "killer cells" can be effectively triggered by stress proteins. The CTL response is thought to be one of the body's most potent defenses against diseased cells, such as those infected by viruses or altered by cancer.
But if the immune response is to win, it must have enough troops patrolling the bloodstream armed with the right recognition codes and the right weapons to flag the enemy and break through the armor. Forewarned is forearmed.
Enter Stressgen. By fusing or genetically recombining a specific stress protein with another protein (antigen), the patented technology creates a single hybrid molecule. Introduced to the body, the immune system takes notes, the inoculation going on to generate antigen-specific immune responses – antibodies and the like specially equipped to zero in on or take out a specific disease displaying the target antigen. As Stressgen notes, because this antigen ‘hook’ can be chosen from a wide variety of sources, "the spectrum of human diseases which potentially can be treated by fusion technology encompass not only microbial pathogens, such as bacteria, parasites and fungi, but also viruses, and cancer."
Stressgen also believes that this fusion technology represents a "re-useable platform" for the development of immunotherapeutics for a number of diseases. Because both the humoral (antibody) and cellular (eg. T-cell) aspects of the immune system can be activated by stress proteins, the potential platform is also broad-based and versatile.
Further to broad-based, the aforementioned expanded patents contain broad claims that cover fusion proteins comprised of a heat shock protein fused to any antigen. Further, there are specific claims to fusion proteins comprised of heat shock proteins fused to viral, cancer or HIV antigens. According to Stressgen CEO Daniel Korpolinski, the patents "firmly solidifies" the company’s position in the arena of heat-shock protein fusions. With the patents due to lapse in 2019, it also gives the company a 17-year exclusive and proprietary window to develop multiple heat-shock protein fusions and thus greatly expand its "patent estate" and pipeline. States Korpolinsk in a release: "Our growing intellectual property portfolio, combined with the strong, positive data coming from our clinical trials, contributes two important ingredients necessary for the successful launch of HspE7, our lead fusion product candidate."
HspE7 is a novel immunotherapeutic for the treatment of diseases caused by the Human Papillomavirus Virus. HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world, estimated to infect approximately 50% of the sexually active population. To date, more than 80 types of HPV have been identified. There are 5.5 million new cases of genital HPV infection diagnosed per year in the U.S. alone; more than one million of these unhappy folk are stricken with genital warts. In addition to warts, genital HPV infection can cause cervical cancer and a variety of pre-cancerous conditions, including anal and cervical dysplasia or "disordered growth" in medical terms and bad news in lay terms.
But what’s bad news to some is good news to others. Now that Stressgen has snagged its "reasonably broad" U.S. patent, Raymond James Ltd. covering analyst Brian Bapty says the company has definitely delivered on one of its major promises and milestones. The second big one – scoring a corporate partnership with major marketing clout – has yet to come but Stressgen says it’s on the horizon. With the first of the milestones down and done, Bapty reports that he likes how the company is evolving.
His reiterated rating: ‘Strong Buy’ with the 12-month price target unspecified.
Based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Stressgen is a public biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative stress protein-based 'fusion' immunotherapeutics. The company is developing a broad range of products for the treatment of viral infections and related cancers. In addition to developing HspE7 for HPV-related diseases, Stressgen also has a program to evaluate heat shock protein fusions in hepatitis B and has initiated research studies to evaluate its heat-shock protein 'fusion' technology in the treatment of the herpes simplex virus and HIV. Stressgen is also an internationally recognized commercial supplier of research products used by scientists worldwide for the study of cellular stress, apoptosis, oxidative stress and neurobiology.
Smallcapcenter.com’s advanced research department gave T.SSB a signal stockscore of 73 at 1:05 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.
A company’s stockscore is an unbiased summary of numerous technical analysis indicators like volume and momentum, which are combined to produce a value on a scale of 1-100 with 100 being the highest level"
smallcapcenter.com
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