BioCurex Inc. announced that the Australian Patent Office has issued a notice of acceptance for a divisional application of our original patent filing.
This is the first patent awarded to BioCurex for the development of therapeutic applications of its RECAF technology. All proprietary protection had previously only covered diagnostic applications, and this approval from the Australian Patent Office is a milestone for the company in an important field of application.
The original filing contained claims related to both diagnostics and therapeutics. During the reviewing process, the mixed nature of the claims resulted in a split (technically known as a divisional application) of the claims in two separate patent files while maintaining the original date. The diagnostic patent application was granted by the Australian Patent Office before and now, the divisional containing the claims for therapeutic applications have also been approved. The process of filing a divisional is a fairly common practice. We expect similar outcomes in other territories where we have divisional pending applications.
BioCurex has proprietary technology on the uses of a molecule called RECAF that is present on the surface and inside cancer cells - though which are mostly absent from healthy cells as well as benign tumour cells. Cancer cells release some RECAF into the blood stream and this has allowed us to develop a blood test for cancer that detects approximately 90 per cent of patients with malignancies at the standard specificity of 95 per cent (5 per cent false positives).
The presence of RECAF also on the surface of malignant cells allows for the specific targeting of a cancer. That is, there is no collateral damage to healthy cells known as "side effects" produced by traditional chemotherapy. Antibodies are particularly suited to target specific molecules and approximately 20 have already been approved by the FDA. Applications range from arthritis (Humira) to cancer (Rituximab, certain lymphomas and leukaemias). Anti-cancer antibody-based therapies represent a multi-billion dollar market size.
Previous work in animals and a small number of patients have shown that malignant tumours can be imaged after injecting a radioactive tracer attached to a molecule that recognizes RECAF. Some of these results have been confirmed and published by other academic research laboratories. This suggests that cancers might be specifically irradiated after treatment with a heavily radio-labelled anti-RECAF antibody.
We have also shown at an international cancer congress that 100 per cent of cancer cells in culture can be killed by anti-RECAF antibodies carrying killing agents, while over 80 per cent of normal cells are unaffected. Earlier work also produced very significant results following the injection of anti-RECAF antibodies into animals with cancer.
The data are still very preliminary and therefore they require further confirmation before any firm conclusions can be drawn. However, the issuance of this first patent allowance is a significant step in moving in that direction because it facilitates approaching major pharmaceutical companies interested in licensing this type of targeted cancer therapy. BioCurex has already secured licenses for its diagnostic tests with Abbott Labs [ABT] and Inverness Medical Innovations [IMA]).
Biocurex is already working on therapeutic applications, an initiative that will be largely expanded once the diagnostic applications are marketed.
BioCurex, Inc. is a biotechnology company that is developing products based on patented/proprietary technology in the areas of cancer diagnosis, imaging and therapy. The technology identifies a cancer marker known as RECAF, which is found on malignant cells from a variety of cancer types but is absent in most normal or benign cells.