Breast Cancer Vaccine Technology Patent Extended to Japan

Anixa Biosciences, Inc. today announced that its collaborator, Cleveland Clinic, has received a “Decision to Grant” notice from the Japan Patent Office for the patent application titled “Vaccine Adjuvants and Formulations.”

"This new Japanese patent extends the claims for this novel breast cancer vaccine technology to an additional geographic region, beyond the U.S. and European patents previously awarded," stated Anixa Chairman and CEO Dr. Amit Kumar in a press release on July 17, 2024.

Cleveland Clinic exclusively licensed this technology to Anixa Biosciences.

Cleveland Clinic researchers have identified a protein called alpha-lactalbumin that is present in healthy breast tissue only when a woman is lactating and disappears when she stops nursing her child.

Alpha-lactalbumin is never present on any other cell in the body. However, it does show up in many types of breast cancer, including an aggressive and deadly form of the disease known as Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

In addition, Cleveland Clinic researchers have identified that the extracellular domain of anti-Mullerian hormone receptor II (AMHR2-ED) is expressed in normal ovaries and nowhere else in the body, ceasing after menopause. However, this protein is also expressed in cancerous ovary cells.

By developing vaccines targeting alpha-lactalbumin and AMHR2-ED, the immune system can destroy breast and ovarian cancer cells, respectively, as they arise and ultimately prevent tumors from forming.

Following the positive clinical data seen in the breast cancer vaccine Phase 1 clinical trial, in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic, a cancer vaccine discovery program utilizing the same mechanism as breast and ovarian cancer vaccines to develop additional cancer vaccines to address many intractable cancers, including high-incidence malignancies in lung, colon, and prostate.