Officials at Endocyte Inc., a cancer drug discovery and development company, announced Tuesday (Oct. 27, 2009) that the company has been awarded a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office covering vitamin receptor binding anti-cancer agents.
The patent, entitled "Vitamin Receptor Binding Drug Delivery Conjugates" (U.S. Patent No. 7,601,332), covers novel conjugation linkages and anti-cancer agents, including Endocyte's EC145, which is currently in development as a potential treatment for ovarian and non-small cell lung cancers.
The patent represents years of research into Endocyte's groundbreaking technology that links potent anti-cancer agents to receptor binding moieties on the surfaces of cells. The technology utilizes a proprietary "linker" technology that connects the anti-cancer agent to the appropriate receptor binding moiety to form a conjugate. The moiety enables the conjugate to remain stable while in circulation and be delivered selectively into cancer cells. The novel "linker" causes the anti-cancer agent to be released in its intact and fully active form within the cells. This patented combination of targeting moiety-linker-drug conjugates describe a number of Endocyte conjugates, including its lead drug candidate, EC145, which uses the vitamin folate as the targeting moiety and which is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials.