Arovella Therapeutics Ltd. announced that the European Patent Office has issued a notification of Intention to Grant a patent for the iNKT cell therapy platform which is under licence to Arovella from Imperial College
Innovations Limited. The patent application, which covers the manufacturing of CAR-iNKT cells, is expected to proceed to grant in early 2023 following completion of the grant formalities. Once granted, the patent will have
a maximum term that will expire on 28 February 2039. The European Application No. EP19710101.7 is titled "TRANSDUCTION AND EXPANSION OF CELLS". Corresponding applications are pending in the United States, Canada, China, Hong Kong and Australia. Arovella acquired the iNKT cell therapy platform technology under licence from Imperial College London in June 2021 1. The completed pre-clinical studies demonstrate that CAR19-iNKT cells are a
robust therapeutic option for eliminating haematological malignancies (blood cancers) that produce CD19, with further enhanced activity against cancers that also produce CD1d. Arovella has partnered with Imugene (ASX:IMU) to combine ALA-101 with Imugene's onCARlytics platform, which opens up the possibility of using ALA-101 to tackle solid tumours 2. Arovella's ALA-101 has been shown in pre-clinical studies to outperform conventional T cells against cancers that express CD19 and CD1d. A key feature of iNKT cells is that they can be used off the shelf and collected from a healthy donor, re-engineered to target cancer cells and given to patients when required.
The iNKT cell therapy platform technology that is the subject of this patent family can also target different cancers by employing, for example, Arovella's DKK-1-peptide targeting technology under a licence from MD Anderson Cancer Center.