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news.Prima BioMed is pleased to announce that Immutep has received a Notice of Allowance from the Australian Patent Office for Patent Application AU 2008306576 "Use of recombinant LAG-3 or the derivatives thereof for eliciting monocyte immune response".
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As announced on 2 October, 2014 Prima has reached an agreement to acquire Immutep subject to obtaining shareholder approval at its AGM to increase its share placement capacity to fund the acquisition. The AGM will be held on 14 November 2014.
The patent provides protection for the use of soluble recombinant LAG-3 Ig (IMP321) or derivatives thereof, notably in combinations, in order to boost a monocyte-mediated immune response, in particular to elicit an increase in the number of monocytes in the blood.
This invention is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer and the broad claims allowed will provide options for numerous clinical applications.
By increasing the number of monocytes or antigen presenting cells in the blood, IMP321 can stimulate increased cytotoxic T cell responses against cancer antigens. Immutep has conducted clinical trials using IMP321 as a monotherapy, an adjuvant and in combination with chemotherapy.
Chief Executive Officer, Marc Voigt said: "We congratulate Immutep on the allowance of this patent which is quite timely given the first patent to issue as a merged entity is likely to be Australian; this really seems quite an appropriate beginning for our proposed journey together."