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Patent Awarded for Cell Life, Protein Production Technology

USPTO building (USPTO.gov)

(USPTO.gov)

Immunomedics Inc., a pharmaceutical company in Morris Plains, New Jersey has been granted a U.S. patent for its discoveries that extend the lifetime of cell lines and improve production of therapeutic proteins. Patent number 8,076,140 — “Mammalian cell lines for increasing longevity and protein yield from a cell culture” — was issued yesterday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The patent covers the company’s methods for adding a gene that inhibits apoptosis, or programmed cell death, which allows cells to survive longer in lab cultures. According to the patent, the adjusted cells can also adapted in advance to grow in serum-free media, decreasing the time needed for the cells to grow, thus improving their production rate.

Immunomedics develops monoclonal antibody-based products to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. CEO Cynthia Sullivan says, “The new technology has already been incorporated into the manufacture of all of our new protein drug candidates, including all of our Dock-and-Lock generated protein constructs that are in preclinical development.”

The Dock-and-Lock process is being developed by the company’s biotechnology subsidiary, IBC Pharmaceuticals, that uses the patented technology in the delivery of imaging and therapeutic agents selectively to various solid cancers, such as colorectal, lung, and pancreatic cancers.

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