Affitech wins new European patent for antibody screening technology

Affitech, an antibody R&D company, has reported that the European Patent Office has granted a European patent on the use of phagemid particles having an antibody-coliphage pIII fusion protein, to identify tumor associated antigens on cells by negative selection.

The new patent is part of the ‘Breitling’ family of patents, originally filed by the German Cancer Research Centre, (Heidelberg, Germany), which is exclusively licensed to Affitech. 

The Breitling family of patents covers the use of full-length pIII phage protein as a scaffold in a phagemid vector, and is one of the fundamental groups of patents for the phagemid display of antibody, antibody fragments and proteins.

The newly granted patent is believed to strengthen Affitech’s intellectual property position in the core expertise area of using antibodies against living cells as targets for the identification of disease related antigens.

Martin Welschof, CEO of Affitech, said: The granted patent is a very valuable addition to Affitech’s patent portfolio and is another proof of our ability to develop novel methods for the generation of clinically relevant products. The patented technology combines perfectly with our cell based selection technology, which Affitech uses with great success in the cancer area to identify both antigens and antibodies.