CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pandion Therapeutics, a clinical-stage, privately held biotechnology company developing modular protein therapeutics for autoimmune diseases, announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 10,676,516 with claims covering bifunctional molecules that target IL-2 muteins to tissues in the gut. The bifunctional molecules protected under this patent were developed using Pandion’s proprietary TALON (Therapeutic Autoimmune reguLatOry proteiN) drug design and discovery platform that enables Pandion to create bifunctional product candidates designed to concentrate immune effector modulators within a target organ. Additional applications are pending in the U.S. and globally covering various immune effectors, tissue-targeted tethers, and combinations thereof.

“The issuance of this key patent strengthens our growing intellectual property portfolio and demonstrates our expertise in the field of bifunctional therapeutics for autoimmune disease,” said Rahul Kakkar, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Pandion Therapeutics. “This milestone is a testament to the exciting work of Pandion’s founders and scientists.”

The foundational patent, which is expected to expire no earlier than 2038, is owned by Pandion Therapeutics and was developed by Pandion’s Chief Scientific Officer Jo Viney, Ph.D. and Pandion’s scientific team and co-founders.

About the TALON Drug Design Platform

Pandion’s Therapeutic Autoimmune reguLatOry proteiN (TALON) drug design and discovery platform has enabled Pandion to employ a modular approach to create a pipeline of product candidates using immunomodulatory effector modules that act at known control nodes within the immune network. Pandion is able to combine an effector module with a tissue-targeted tether module in a bifunctional format to guide delivery of the effector to a targeted tissue. Using the TALON platform, to date Pandion has ongoing efforts in multiple research programs designed to address autoimmune diseases of the gut, liver, skin, kidneys, and pancreas. Pandion’s pancreas program is the subject of a collaboration with Astellas Pharmaceuticals, announced in October 2019.

About Pandion

Pandion Therapeutics is developing novel therapeutics designed to address the unmet needs of patients suffering from autoimmune diseases. Pandion’s lead product candidate, PT101, a combination of an interleukin-2 mutein effector module with a protein backbone, is designed to selectively expand regulatory T cells systemically, without activating proinflammatory cells, such as conventional T cells and natural killer cells. Pandion is continuing to develop and expand its library of effector and tether modules as part of its early stage research and discovery pipeline. Please visit www.pandiontx.com.

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