Oxford BioMedica announced in June 200 that it has received allowance from the US Patent Office for a fundamental patent covering its proprietary LentiVector technology
The patent includes broad composition of matter claims and methods of production claims for lentiviral vector gene delivery systems of both human and non-human origin.
The patent is particularly important because it covers derivatives of lentiviral vector systems that, unlike many versions of lentiviral vectors, have real clinical utility because of their safety.
The BioMedica team was the first to construct lentiviral vectors that contain no viral genes at all, and which comprise the minimum number of viral components in the viral particles.
It is this minimisation of the vectors that is the subject of the patent.
This work was done using vectors based on HIV and Equine Infectious Anaemia Virus (EIAV), a horse virus that is not linked to any disease in humans.
The EIAV system is BioMedica's system of choice because of its superior safety profile.
Oxford BioMedica is currently utilising the EIAV-based vector system in target validation and gene discovery and in preclinical studies in therapies for prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease.
In particular BioMedica has shown that LentiVector has a unique capability for the delivery of genes at high efficiency to cells of the nervous system.
This capability underlies BioMedica's candidate Parkinson's disease product ProSavin, and will be one of the main areas of focus for BioMedica , Oxford BioMedica's new USA operation.
"Oxford BioMedica's LentiVector technology is a powerful gene delivery platform that out-performs other vector systems in terms of its combination of high gene transfer efficiencies, duration and regulation of gene expression, ease of production and safety.
"This is reflected in the range of existing commercial interactions and further discussions that are underway related to this technology, and in encouraging results from a number of the company's preclinical studies.
"We are working currently on taking our first LentiVector-based products into clinical trials for cancer and for Parkinson's disease" said Alan Kingsman, chief executive of Oxford BioMedica.
