| Toulouse, 11 January 2008 — The Institut Pasteur has agreed to add a new patent under the exclusive license granted to BT PHARMA with regards to the Adenylate Cyclase vector technology. This patent has been filed in all major markets of the OECD as well as in China and India. |   |
The patent claims a novel combination cancer treatment, which associates a chemotherapeutic agent with an immunotherapeutic agent, resulting in a dramatically improved specific immune response against the malignant tissues. In fact, the treatment induces simultaneously an adaptive cellular immune response (tumour cell specific), an amplified innate immune response and decreases the immune tolerance that tumours typically acquire. This patented combination has, for the first time in appropriate animal models, allowed to totally eliminate very large vascularized solid tumours.
The new patent reinforces BT PHARMA’s intellectual property portfolio, which consists of proprietary patents and patents exclusively in licensed from the Institut Pasteur. The results protected under this most recent patent filed by the Institut Pasteur were obtained by the team of Professor Claude Leclerc, Director of the Department for Immune Regulation and Vaccinology, INSERM U883, Institut Pasteur. Professor Claude Leclerc is also member of the Science Board of the "Cancéropôle Ile-de-France" and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of BT PHARMA.
« This is the second patent of the Institut Pasteur this year that BT PHARMA has integrated in its exclusive license arrangement with regards to the Adenylate Cyclase vector technology » said Benedikt Timmerman, Chief Executive Officer of BT PHARMA; « Already in May 2007, we have acquired the commercial rights to a patent filed by the Institut Pasteur, which claims the use of the Adenylate Cyclase carrying tumour-derived antigenic peptides. Together with the patent covering combination therapy of CyaA with chemotherapy, these two patents substantially reinforce BT PHARMA’s position in the domain of cancer immunotherapy ».
With regards to BT PHARMA S.A.
BT PHARMA is a bio-pharmaceutical company, spun out from Institut Pasteur incubator in 2002 (Pasteur-Biotop) and currently headquartered in Toulouse, France. The company strives to improve the well-being of people through the development of therapeutic vaccines for infection, dysplasia and cancer provoked by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). BT PHARMA’s key technology is a recombinant protein-based antigen delivery system: the Adenylate Cyclase vector (CyaA). CyaA allows "re-educating" the immune system such that protective cellular immunity is activated against certain serious diseases, including cancer. The CyaA technology stands out because of its universal applicability, its target specificity, its potency and relative simplicity. BT PHARMA focuses on the HPV domain but invites industrial partnerships for development of vaccines against other cancers as well as preventive vaccines against infectious diseases.
ProCervix®, the most advanced product candidate of the company, will enter phase I/II clinical trials in 2008. This bivalent therapeutic vaccine targets high grade neoplasia and cervical cancer provoked by Human Papillomavirus HPV16 and HPV18, which affect more than 70% of women with these indications. If effective, ProCervix® could replace Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure (LEEP) or cervical conisation in millions of women infected by HPV16 or HPV18 and at risk of developing cervical cancer. Please note that preventive HPV vaccines are not proscribed for people that are already infected by the virus. On average 12% of the population is carrier of HPV, of which a fraction will develop high-grade intra-epithelial lesions that can progress to invasive cancer. It is for these people that BT PHARMA intends to provide a less invasive solution.
Source: BT Pharma
