Genitope files patents for personalized monoclonal anitbodies for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

By Angela McDaniels

Seattle, Dec. 8 - Genitope Corp. said it has filed two patents for methods and materials that may represent a novel, personalized approach for treating non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

More specifically, the patents would cover the composition and use of a panel of monoclonal antibodies directed against specific epitopes in the variable regions of the B-cell receptor.

Genitope's approach is based on the finding that even though each lymphoma patient's B-cell tumor expresses a unique idiotypic surface immunoglobulin (the BCR), those immunoglobulins nevertheless have characteristics that are shared across predictable patient subsets.

Genitope said it has developed antibodies that are reactive within patient subpopulations and are anticipated to be therapeutic.

"What's particularly exciting about this approach is that it is more personalized and more targeted than current monoclonal antibody therapies for lymphoma, but lends itself to an off-the-shelf therapy that does not require customization," said Dan W. Denney, chief executive officer of Genitope, in a company news release.

The concepts in these patents build on work performed in the laboratory of Ronald Levy at Stanford University Medical Center in the 1980s.

Levy and colleagues demonstrated the ability of anti-BCR monoclonal antibodies to reduce tumor burden and induce remissions in lymphoma patients, many of them long-term. Levy's original approach, however, was not commercially feasible, the company said.

The patent filings cover the panel of BCR-reactive monoclonal antibodies as well as aspects related to their development, the diagnostic screening and sub-classification of patients based on BCR variable-region utilization and the therapeutic use of the monoclonal antibodies alone and in synergistic combination with MyVax Personalized Immunotherapy.

"If the monoclonal antibodies developed at Genitope prove to have anti-tumor effects similar to those seen at Stanford, they could eventually be used in conjunction with MyVax Personalized Immunotherapy and might reduce or eliminate the need for chemotherapy in the early treatment of lymphoma," Denney said.

In addition to these patent filings, Genitope is actively working to complete the initial development of the monoclonal antibody panel and production of clinical-grade material. The company intends to file an Investigational New Drug application in 2006 and initiate clinical trials thereafter.

Genitope is a biotechnology company based in Redwood City, Calif., that develops immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.

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