Kymab succeeds in revoking Regeneron’s European Patent
Novo Nordisk and Merus also opposed the patent
Cambridge, UK-based antibody technology company Kymab has won a European patent battle against Regeneron.
The European Patent Office (EPO) has granted Kymab's request to revoke European Patent EP1,360,287B1, owned by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
In addition to Kymab, Danish firm Novo Nordisk and Dutch biopharmaceutical company Merus, the developer of the transgenic MeMo mouse also opposed the patent. Regeneron has the opportunity to appeal this decision to the Appeal Board of the European Patent Office.
The revoked patent sought to cover genetically modified mice containing mouse antibody variable region loci that had been replaced with human variable region loci.
Following a hearing before the Opposition Division of the EPO on 17 September, the EPO agreed with Kymab that Regeneron's claimed mouse invention cannot be patented because it lacks an inventive step as required by European patent law.
Kymab focuses on the discovery and development of fully human monoclonal antibody drugs using its proprietary Kymouse transgenic antibody platform.
Kymouse has been designed to maximise the diversity of human antibodies produced in response to immunisation with antigens. Selecting from a broad diversity of fully human antibodies assures the highest probability of finding that rare drug candidate with best-in-class characteristics.
Kymab is using the platform for its internal drug discovery programmes and in partnership with pharmaceutical companies. The first Kymouse antibody discovery agreement was concluded with Novo Nordisk in 2013.