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(Alliance News) - Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC on Monday said it has been awarded a patent for its bi-specific antibody in China.
Shares in the London-based developer of drugs for blood diseases were up 3.4% to 1.66 pence each in London on Monday morning.
The patent, which was issued by China National Intellectual Property Administration, covers a method of use of a bi-specific antibody for conditioning patients for bone marrow/hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
It also covers composition of matter of monoclonal antibodies against target proteins existing on the surface of hematopoietic stem cells/hematopoietic progenitors, and/or a number of leukemias such as acute myeloid leukemia as well as a protein that exists on the surface of immune cells.
"If fully and successfully developed, the method has potential to obviate the need for highly toxic conditioning protocols, including chemotherapy, in patients who require BM/HSC transplantation and would result in the development of a superior pharmaceutical for the treatment of blood cancers, for which survival rates are currently very poor," the company explained.
Hemogenyx said that the original provisional patent application was filed in April 2016 and later converted into an international patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. It was then refiled and subdivided into divisional patent applications in 2019.
Both divisional patent applications were granted patent rights in the US back in 2021, the company added.
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder Vladislav Sandler said: "The grant of the patent right on the territory of China is significant for the company because it protects the company's IP in one of the largest global markets and further affirms the company's leading position in the field of the development of groundbreaking therapies for the treatment of blood cancers and BM/HSC transplantation conditioning."
By Sophie Rose; sophierose@alliancenews.com
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