Cytune Pharma, an emerging leader in innovative immunomodulatory agents against cancer and infectious diseases, announced today that it will attend the BIO2012 to present its major achievements over the last 12 months and to foster partnering discussions.
Cytune also announced that, on 05/10/2011, the European Patent and Trademark Office issued patent EP06842352.4 for its recombinant Interleukin-15-based fusion protein CYP0150. The patent covers CYP0150 and all its related clinical applications. The company also received two Notices of Allowance from Mexico and Russia indicating that a patent will be issued.
"These patents, together with our current efforts with other patent offices, including the USPTO, and our will to expand and consolidate our patent positions, will provide a broad and long-term protection for Cytune Pharma's CYP0150" said David Bechard, President and COO of Cytune Pharma.
In addition, the company raised 3 million euros to consolidate its financial position to boost CYP0150's and of its immunocytokines' developments. These funds were obtained from existing shareholders and new entrants together with a grant (2012-2013) from the French National Research Agency dedicated to the translational development of CYP0150.
"This financing enables Cytune to boost the development of CYP0150. In preclinical models, CYP0150 was shown to be more potent and safer than interleukin-2 and interleukin-15 and may, therefore, markedly expand the immunotherapy market that is extremely attractive as proven by the recent success of Yervoy" said Dr. Bechard.
"Furthermore, it allows us to further generate and develop our immunocytokines. Our 3 current immunocytokines (based on known and new antibodies) are very promising in terms of efficacy, the potencies of the parent antibodies being markedly increased. Cytune established a strong and focused pipeline of well-validated preclinical drug candidates and a robust technology platform. This novel proprietary Immunocytokines platform revisits the concept of coupling an antibody with a cytokine and is open to partnering" he added.