Singapore: MMRGlobal received confirmation of the filings of a divisional application for its antibody technology in Japan and South Korea as a result of expedited patent allowance Program, which is also referred to as the patent prosecution highway.

The filings are part of MMRGlobal's plan to expand the scope of its biotech assets and other intellectual property (IP).

The US patent and PPH 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 with reported worldwide sales of $7.285 billion in 2012 and is going to go off patent in 2015.

Additional patent applications for the company's antibodies are also pending in a number of other countries including Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, India, and European nations. 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 B-cell mediated cancers that are among the most expensive types of cancer with respect to cost of treatment.