TapImmune, Inc. (TPIV), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company specializing in the development of innovative peptide and nucleic acid-based immunotherapeutic vaccines for the treatment of cancer, including metastatic cancer, announced that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its patent application entitled, “A chimeric nucleic acid molecule with non-AUG initiation sequences.” The patent claims are for the company’s proprietary PolyStart technology which is a platform for the next-generation vaccine technology for the treatment of cancer or infectious diseases. It elevates the expression of any one or a multiplicity of T-cell antigenic epitopes by four fold or greater.

The term of this patent extends to March 17, 2034 and its inventor is Dr. Robert Z. Florkiewicz, head of research at TapImmune.

“The allowed claims on this patent clearly position TapImmune to advance the clinical development of PolyStart, making it the third proprietary vaccine technology in our pipeline. We are very excited about this technology, as we believe it marks a next generation of T-cell vaccines,” stated Dr. Glynn Wilson, chairman & CEO of TapImmune.

“PolyStart has unlimited application in oncology and infectious diseases not only within TapImmune’s own platforms but it can be applied to many others via licensing. As we move forward into phase 2 trials for TPIV 200, which targets folate receptor alpha, and TPIV 100/110 our Her2/neu product, we fully expect to develop PolyStart as both a stand-alone therapy and as a ‘boost strategy’ to be used synergistically with our peptide-based vaccines for breast and ovarian cancer,” Dr. Wilson added.

PolyStart is extremely versatile as it can be administered in vivo or ex vivo in concert with essentially any nucleic acid-based composition (e.g., plasmid or minigene), RNA, or viral (replicating or non-replicating) delivery system. The technology elevates the expression of selected antigenic epitopes that are then naturally processed, presented and recognized by cells of a recipient patients’ immune system. TapImmune plans to use this technology to provide additional potency to its next generation T-cell vaccines for cancer and will explore out-licensing opportunities for its use in other areas such as infectious disease.

PolyStart is a unique vaccine platform antigen expression system that ‘elevates’ the expression and consequently the processing and presentation of the desired antigenic peptide for the stimulation of T-killer and/or T-helper cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. This totally novel system creates a 4 fold or more increase in antigen presentation. This technology has unlimited application in oncology and infectious diseases not only in TapImmune’s own platforms but can be applied to many others via licensing.