Ultimovacs has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a notice of allowance for the company’s US application for a patent covering methods for eliciting a T cell immune response with the UV1 universal cancer vaccine.

Subject to grant formalities, the company expects that the patent will issue with a term to at least 15 February 2031. Ultimovacs has similar patent applications pending or granted in other territories worldwide, including Europe, Japan and China.

“This latest notice of allowance from USPTO reinforces Ultimovacs’ intellectual property position with a focus on the ability of UV1 to elicit T cell responses,” says Carlos de Sousa, Chief Executive Officer of Ultimovacs. “We have five distinct ongoing comparative Phase II trials, evaluating if UV1 combinations with checkpoint inhibitors can improve the outlook for patients in a range of different cancers. The growing IP portfolio supports the clinical progress and broader development of Ultimovacs, with granted patents and pending applications covering the composition of matter of UV1, uses of UV1 in combination with multiple checkpoint inhibitors and the generation of effective immune responses from UV1 and its components.”

The scope of the patent

The scope of the patent described in US application, when issued, will cover a method of eliciting CD4+ and/or a CD8+ T cell immune responses by administering the peptide cocktail of the UV1 drug product. The patent also covers methods concerning the administration of certain individual UV1 peptides and fragments of the peptides.

In effect, the patent provides Ultimovacs with a means to prevent sales and marketing of UV1 for the stated method by competitors in the USA. The three long peptides embedded in UV1 were identified from patients who are long-term survivors following hTERT vaccination and have been shown to stimulate both CD8+ cytotoxic T cells and CD4+ T helper cells.

Photo of Carlos de Sousa: Ultimovacs