Lpath, Inc., the category leader in therapeutic agents against bioactive lipids, announced the receipt of a Notice of Allowance from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on an important cancer patent.

When issued, this patent will give Lpath coverage for the use of Sphingomab in the treatment of cancer. Sphingomab is Lpath's monoclonal antibody against sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), an important bioactive lipid that has been validated as a cancer drug target. Findings that demonstrate the profound anti-cancer effects of Sphingomab were recently published in the prestigious journal, Cancer Cell.

The first claim allowed by the USPTO gives Lpath broad coverage of "any agent that binds to sphingosine-1-phosphate" for the treatment of cancer. Another claim specifically covers antibodies or antibody variants in cancer treatment. Roger Sabbadini, Lpath's chief scientific officer and scientific founder, is listed as the inventor on this important patent.

Lpath has other patents that cover Sphingomab as a composition of matter (i.e., a potential drug), but this new patent gives Lpath coverage of an important disease indication that has been validated in mouse models of human cancers described in the Cancer Cell paper.

The murine (mouse-based) form of Sphingomab was the first antibody created using Lpath's proprietary ImmuneY2 technology. This proprietary technology provides Lpath a platform from which to generate antibodies against other important bioactive lipids. For example, Lpath recently developed a monoclonal antibody against another bioactive lipid, LPA, which is also a validated cancer target.

"Lpath's broad and deep intellectual property coverage is now supported by over 26 issued and pending patents," said Scott Pancoast, Lpath's president and chief executive officer. "This patent, once issued, will allow Lpath to prevent the unlicensed use of Sphingomab and other S1P-binding agents in the treatment of cancer."

Lpath has recently engineered humanized versions of Sphingomab so that this potential therapeutic may be administered multiple times to cancer patients without eliciting a neutralizing immune response.