Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel cellular immunotherapies, announced that a patent has been issued to Baylor College of Medicine, a premier academic health sciences centre, for methods of inducing apoptosis in cells that have been infused in patients.

Bellicum, which exclusively licensed the worldwide rights to the technology from Baylor, has incorporated the invention into BPX-501, its adjunct T cell therapy designed to improve outcomes in patients undergoing haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplants, now in phase 1/2 clinical studies.

“This important patent extends the proprietary rights of our lead cell therapy product candidate, BPX-501, until at least 2031,” commented Tom Farrell, Bellicum’s president and chief executive officer.

“We have continued to innovate using this and other technologies to create safer and more effective cell therapies to treat cancers and genetic blood disorders, strongly positioning Bellicum for success in this rapidly growing area of medicine.”

The invention is for a method of cell therapy where cells are first modified to express an inducible caspase 9 protein. The protein, when triggered with the small molecule compound rimiducid (AP1903), induces apoptosis and rapid cell death. The cells can be selectively eliminated when a patient experiences dangerous and life threatening toxicities, such as graft versus host disease. Baylor was issued US patent number 9,089,520.