CEL-SCI Corporation, a phase 3 cancer immunotherapy company, announced that the European Patent Office has issued CEL-SCI patent EP 2254588B1 titled, "Method of Preparation and Composition of Peptide Constructs for Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis" for the company's LEAPS platform technology. CEL-SCI's LEAPS technology relates to peptide constructs which may be useful in the treatment or prevention of autoimmune diseases, particularly rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, allergies, and host versus graft (or graft versus host) rejection.

The LEAPS platform technology is currently being developed as a potential therapeutic vaccine for rheumatoid arthritis under a $1.5 million grant from National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Upon completion of preclinical investigational new drug (IND) enabling studies for the LEAPS-based rheumatoid arthritis vaccine candidate, CEL-SCI intends to file an IND application with the US Food and Drug Administration to allow the rheumatoid arthritis vaccine to be tested in humans to determine its safety and potential therapeutic usefulness.

"As we move the first LEAPS platform vaccine candidate towards potential human studies, we are pleased to have this important patent issued in Europe. This patent, and other patent applications currently being pursued around the world, expand and fortify our intellectual property coverage for our LEAPS technology platform," said Dr. Daniel Zimmerman, senior vice president of research, cellular immunology.

LEAPS is a patented, T-cell modulation, peptide epitope delivery technology that enables CEL-SCI to design and synthesize proprietary peptide immunogens. LEAPS compounds consist of a small T-cell binding peptide ligand linked with a disease-associated peptide antigen.

In animal challenge tests conducted in collaboration with the NIH, the US Navy, and several highly regarded universities, LEAPS platform technology has been shown to direct the immune response preferentially to a cellular (e.g. T-cell), humoral (antibody) or mixed pathway. It can potentially be utilized to treat diseases for which antigenic epitope sequences have already been identified, such as: a number of infectious diseases, some cancers, autoimmune diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis), allergic asthma and allergy, and select CNS diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's).