WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Palleon Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage company pioneering glyco-immunology drug development to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued Patent No.11,459,398 titled, “Conjugates for Targeted Cell Surface Editing.” The patent broadens Palleon’s intellectual property position and bolsters coverage for the company’s proprietary EAGLE platform, which is based on engineered human sialidase enzymes that restore antitumor immunity by degrading immunosuppressive sialoglycans on tumors and across immune cell types.
The patented technology is part of an exclusive license Palleon has with Stanford University and originated in the laboratory of Carolyn Bertozzi, an inventor on the patent, and a scientific co-founder of Palleon Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Bertozzi was recently awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the invention of bioorthogonal chemistry, a technology which enabled the foundational science for Palleon’s platform.
“It is thrilling to see Palleon’s pioneering EAGLE platform reach this important milestone,” said Dr. Bertozzi. “Therapeutic removal of sialic acid from cells in the tumor microenvironment, as this patent describes, has shown promising potential in generating an immune antitumor response in pre-clinical studies. This glyco-immunology approach could deliver meaningful benefits for patients who don’t respond to today’s immuno-oncology treatments.”
The EAGLE platform enables the development of first-in-class therapies that strip sialic acids from both immune cells and cancer cells, restoring innate and adaptive antitumor immunity. This patent covers the use in cancer of tumor-targeted antibodies conjugated to sialidase, an enzyme that cleaves sialic acid.
“This patent provides important additional intellectual property coverage for an approach that, we believe, is key to expanding the promise of immunotherapy to millions of patients, especially to those patients with immune suppression who do not respond to currently approved immunotherapy agents,” said Jim Broderick, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and founder of Palleon. “With this patent solidified, we are in a strong position to continue development of an entirely new class of investigational therapies within our rich, clinical-stage pipeline.”
About Palleon Pharmaceuticals
Palleon Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company pioneering glyco-immunology drug development to transform the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. The Company’s proprietary platforms overcome technical barriers unique to glycobiology to enable drug discovery, patient selection, and indication prioritization to de-risk clinical development. The company’s lead program in oncology, E-602, is a Phase 1/2, first-in-class, glyco-immune checkpoint inhibitor which restores antitumor immunity by enzymatically degrading immunosuppressive sialoglycans on hypersialylated tumors and immune cells. Palleon has a rich pipeline of additional drug candidates including several assets advancing toward IND-enabling studies. The scientific co-founder of Palleon Pharmaceuticals, Carolyn Bertozzi, Ph.D, is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and professor in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University and the recipient of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
