Woburn, MA, Feb. 23, 2017 – CellMosaic® announced today that the Chinese Intellectual Property Office issued a formal Notice of Allowance for a patent on AqueaTether (AqT™) molecules (Chinese Patent Application No. 201280034231.3 entitled “Sugar alcohol-based crosslinking reagents, macromolecules, therapeutic bioconjugates, and synthetic methods thereof”). The issued patent will provide intellectual property protection in China for broad coverage of AqT™ molecules and their bioconjugates, including antibody-drug conjugates, AqT™ polymer-modified biomolecules, and AqT™ molecules labeled with a biodetection molecule. The patent also provides coverage for solid phase-based AqT™ conjugates.
“AqT™ molecules were invented to provide bioconjugation-based drugs and research reagents with enhanced water solubility and activities. These include diagnostic reagents for signal amplification and target-specific drugs, such as antibody-drug conjugates, and for delivering therapeutic biopolymers and small molecules,” says Dr. Yumei Huang, inventor of AqueaTether (AqT™) molecules. “We are very pleased with the Chinese Intellectual Property Office’s recognition of our innovations. This Chinese patent, along with our previously issued US patents for the AqT™ platform, give us and our partners the intellectual protection to support research and development opportunities in China. To fulfill our commitment in the drug discovery and development area, CellMosaic has built a separate AqT™ therapeutics business unit led by Walter J. Lunsmann, which will work with our partners to utilize the AqT™ platform and create significant value for their programs.”
About AqT™ molecules
AqT™ molecules are new chemical entities designed and created at CellMosaic based on sugar alcohol monomers. Sugar alcohols occur naturally in foods and are often used as ingredients in sweeteners. AqT™ molecules are super-hydrophilic molecules and have many advantages over classical linkers and polymers, such as PEG and PLGA, in terms of improved a) hydrophilicity, b) biodegradability, c) loading, d) versatility, and e) ease of customization. AqT™ molecules allow maximum flexibility in building and generating novel drug conjugates with enhanced therapeutic profiles due to their super-hydrophilic, mono-disperse, and multifunctional natures. For example, shorter AqT™ cross linkers allow convenient linking of hydrophobic drug molecules to a targeting biopolymer in water without a loss of activity, improving efficacy in vivo. When used to label a therapeutic biopolymer, AqT™ polymer can increase the protein’s stability in the circulation, reduce its immunogenicity, and decrease the frequency of dosing. The mono-dispersed AqT™ polymer makes a homogeneous conjugate possible; thus, the conjugate manufacturing process is predictable and easy to control. The AqT™ polymer can also be designed with multiple conjugation sites for loading hydrophobic chemotherapeutic agents. This will greatly increase the solubility and stability of hydrophobic drugs and increase the amount of drug delivered to tumors, reducing undesirable side effects and the frequency of dosing.
About CellMosaic®, Inc.
CellMosaic®, Inc. is an innovator and leader in bioconjugation and crosslinking technologies. Several key technologies are being developed at CellMosaic, including oxLink™ technologies for studying protein–protein interactions, NeIon™ technologies for detecting and quantitating trace amounts of analytes of interest, and super-hydrophilic AqueaTether™ conjugation technology. The AqueaTether™ platform covers linkers for clean conjugation of antibody/protein/peptide/oligo with small molecule drugs, biocompatible, biodegradable, mono-dispersed AqueaTether™ macromolecules for the modification of protein/peptide/oligo drugs and preparation of highly loaded small molecule drugs for better delivery, and bioconjugation platform technologies involving screening, labeling/crosslinking, purification, and analysis of any bioconjugate. CellMosaic® is also actively engaged in serving the biological and life science communities by providing custom synthesis of high-quality bioconjugate products.
About AqueaTether™ Therapeutics
AqueaTether™ Therapeutics is a division of CellMosaic® created in 2016. AqueaTether ™ Therapeutics focuses on the discovery and development of novel hybrid drug entities beyond the conventional drug classes by using AqueaTether ™ (AqT ™) conjugation and delivery platform technologies. We work with our partners to advance their programs. For more information regarding AqueaTether™-based bioconjugate drugs, please visit our website www.aqttherapeutics.com.