Burlingame, California (December 9, 2008) The USPTO today issued to Epitomics Inc. patent no. 7,462,697 which covers a novel method for humanizing monoclonal antibodies. This patent, along with the recently announced patent on their next generation fusion partner (patent no. 7,429,487), positions Epitomics to be the world’s sole provider of humanized rabbit monoclonal antibodies for therapeutic use.
Epitomics, exclusive maker of RabMAb® monoclonal antibodies, works with customers around the world, including major biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, research labs and universities. This new patented process will allow Epitomics to humanize rabbit monoclonal antibodies – which are already highly regarded within the pathology and research reagent sectors for their extraordinary affinity and specificity - for human therapeutic use. Unlike traditional humanization methods, Epitomics’ method allows the binding regions of an antibody to be humanized in addition to the non-binding regions. Therefore, in addition to having extraordinary binding characteristics, Epitomics’ humanized antibodies potentially cause less of an immune response than antibodies humanized by other methods.
“This is an important piece in the puzzle for us in terms of intellectual property” said Dr Guo-Liang Yu, CEO of Epitomics. “We are now positioned to move aggressively into the human therapeutic market, starting with major pre-clinical work on multiple targets in 2009. We are confident we will soon be able to demonstrate RabMAb effectiveness in human therapeutics.”
About Epitomics
Epitomics, Inc., an emerging biotechnology company, is dedicated to developing breakthrough monoclonal antibody technology for research, diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The Company utilizes a unique and proprietary RabMAb® (Rabbit Monoclonal Antibody) technology which produces antibodies with superior binding affinity and bioactivity in a wide variety of biological assays. Epitomics, Inc. (www.epitomics.com) is headquartered in Burlingame, California, and operates a wholly owned subsidiary in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China.
