MMRGlobal receives cancer-fighting anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies patent in Korea

This is the fourth country to issue this patent as a result of the Expedited Patent Allowance Program which follows the issuance of US patents to MMR for its anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies. The South Korean patent will be issued under the title ‘Antibodies and Methods For Making and Using Them’.

The company also reported that an additional divisional South Korean patent application No. 10-2013-7022383 was filed on 23 August 2013 which case remains pending. The issuance of US Patent No. 8,465,741 on June 18, 2013 provided the company with the mechanism to request expedited examination of the equivalent patent claims in numerous international markets.

The filings are part of MMRGlobal’s plan to expand the scope of its biotech assets and other intellectual property, in particular, the company’s issued US Patent No. 8,465,741 directed at its anti-CD20 antibody assets, which has also been granted in Mexico and Australia. MMR also holds additional patents pertaining to its B-cell idiotype vaccine worldwide.

The company’s strategy of filing divisional patent applications in countries of commercial interest like China, Japan and South Korea is allowing it to take advantage of an international treaty to expedite receiving patents based on existing approvals in the US.

The newest patent and patent application will help provide additional protection of the Company’s specific antibodies that have particular utility in fighting cancers.

MMR’s anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies are important assets of the Company, the value and benefit of which are demonstrated by how these antibodies are used commercially in products like Rituxan, an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody which is due to go off patent in 2015.

Additional patent applications for the company’s antibodies are also pending in a number of other countries or regional authorities including Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Europe, and Japan, with additional patent applications in Australia and South Korea.

The company’s anti-CD20 antibodies were developed to help provide low-cost alternatives for treatments like Rituxan in connection with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers widely considered too expensive for the world population of patients who need costlier forms of treatment to live.

MMRGlobal, through its wholly owned subsidiary MyMedicalRecords, also owns numerous health information technology patents issued or pending related to providing online medical and Personal Health Records in 12 countries or regional authorities of commercial interest.

These include the US, where MMR has 10 issued patents and over 400 claims as well as additional applications and continuation applications, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and Europe. MMR also has hundreds of claims either pending or published related to health IT worldwide.

In biotech, the company has invested more than $100m in research and development on its FavId vaccine trials and use of customized tumor cells to treat lymphoma patients and other technologies.

MMR has continued to make progress in protecting the company’s IP, including its anti-CD20 antibodies and B-Cell vaccine patents entitled "Method and Composition for Altering a B-Cell Mediated Pathology," which relate to methods of manufacturing compositions for B-Cell vaccines used in the fight against lymphoma and potentially other forms of cancer.

The anti-CD20 antibodies were part of a portfolio of biotech assets and other intellectual property originally spun off from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. The company has an active biotech licensing program and has already signed licensing agreements worth in excess of twelve million dollars from which it has received nearly one million dollars.