Novozymes Biopharma and Upperton have announced that the European Patent Office has granted a European patent for their targeted drug delivery joint patent application.
The formal decision, dated 27 October 2008, strengthens the Upperton drug delivery technology portfolio and highlights the growing technology platform that it offers to partner companies.
Upperton, along with its collaboration partner Novozymes Biopharma, is now seeking to exploit these technologies with established pharmaceutical companies.
The patent describes methods of conjugating antibodies and other targeting agents to protein carriers by means of a heterobifunctional linker.
In doing so, it is possible to deliver large quantities of drugs and other agents to selected sites in the body.
The initial focus for the technology will be in oncology.
One such application involves using monoclonal antibodies to target recombinant albumin loaded with, for example, a chemotherapeutic agent to cancer cells.
By using the carrier properties of albumin, it is possible to target significant quantities of chemotherapeutic agents or radioactive metal ions to cancer cells, while retaining the sensitive binding property of the targeting antibody.
The result is an increase in the amount of therapeutic agent that can be delivered to its target compared to standard administration methods.
