Coronado Biosciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, has received a second key US patent from the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for CNDO-109 directed to the activated Natural Killer (NK) cell compositions employed in its NK cell therapy programme, and has further issued a Notice of Allowance in an additional pending application directed to pharmaceutical compositions comprising these activated NK cells.

The activated NK cells are prepared by a patented process licensed by Coronado from UCL Business PLC, which is already the subject of a previously-granted US patent. Similar patent protection has been obtained in Australia and India and applications are still pending in Europe, Japan and Canada.

"The issuance of these additional patents will further solidify our proprietary position around CNDO-109, giving us broad composition-of-matter protection for our NK cell therapies in addition to the methods of manufacturing them,” said Dr Lindsay Rosenwald, Coronado’s chairman and chief executive officer. The core NK activation technology was developed in the laboratory of Dr Mark Lowdell, director of Cellular Therapy & Biobanking at Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust and assistant professor and senior lecturer in Hematology at University College London. Coronado acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and market CNDO-109 from UCL Business PLC.

CNDO-109 is a biologic that activates the immune system’s NK cells to seek and destroy cancer cells. Preclinical studies of CNDO-109 have demonstrated activity in multiple myeloma, breast cancer, prostate cancer and ovarian cancer. Based on data obtained from a phase I investigator-sponsored clinical trial in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the Company believes early efficacy was observed. Coronado is conducting a phase I/II dose escalation trial in AML patients in the US.

Coronado Biosciences is engaged in the development of novel immunotherapy biologic agents.