The Company is the exclusive licensor of a portfolio of patents based on the work of Dr. Yvonne Paterson, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Paterson’s research focuses on the use of Listeria and listerial products as immunotherapy vehicles.
Together, the Company and the University of Pennsylvania hold more than 70 issued and pending patents for composition of matter, methods and uses for live Lm and LLO-antigen fusion proteins. The patent portfolio includes several broad patents and applications that are filed both in the US and internationally. Patent No. EP-B1 790 835 was successfully defended in European Patent Court and additional challenges to that patent are not permitted.
The portfolio covers attenuated strains of Lm suitable for use as human vaccine vectors, attenuated bioengineered strains of Lm that secrete LLO-antigen or ActA-antigen fusion proteins, truncated LLO and LLO-antigen fusion proteins (independent of Lm), and multiple target antigens in the same immunotherapy.