Singapore: Genticel, a clinical-stage biotechnology company and developer of innovative immunotherapies to prevent cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), has been granted a new patent in US for a therapy of cancer based on targeting adaptive, innate and/or regulatory component of the immune response.

This patent, exclusively licensed by Institut Pasteur to Genticel, protects the use of the company's CyaA-based antigen delivery vectors in combination therapy to treat cancer.

"This new patent strengthens our intellectual property portfolio and expands our potential to progress in therapeutic areas beyond early-stage disease by enabling the use of our CyaA vectors in combination with other drugs for advanced cancer," said Mr Martin Koch, CEO, Genticel. "Genticel now holds multiple key patents protecting our technology for use in many indications, from viral infection to cancer, in all major markets."

The CyaA (adenylate cyclase) vector is a breakthrough in antigen delivery technology used by Genticel to develop its lead product candidate, GTL001 (ProCervix), currently in a fully recruited phase 2 clinical trial. GTL001 is a therapeutic vaccine that aims to treat the 93 million women infected worldwide with HPV 16 and/or 18 before high-grade or cancerous cervical lesions develop.