Celyad’s patent holds up after being challenged by third party

Celyad’s patent holds up after being challenged by third party

January 9, 2017 Off By Dino Mustafić

U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) has decided to uphold Celyad’s U.S. Patent No. 9,181,527, relating to allogeneic human primary T-cells that are engineered to be TCR-deficient and express a CAR.

Celyad’s U.S. patent (No. 9,181,527), and more precisely claim 1 of the said patent, was challenged by an anonymous third party through an Ex Parte Re-examination procedure. The request for Ex Parte re-examination was filed on February 10th, 2016 and an order granting Ex Parte Re-examination of claim 1 was issued by the USPTO on March 24th, 2016. The final decision of this Ex Parte procedure that was issued on January 6th 2017 is not subject to appeal and upholds the validity of the patent.

Therefore, Celyad’s U.S. patent (No. 9,181,527), confirms continued coverage of CAR-expressing human T-cells, according to Claim 1, modified to reduce or eliminate T-cell receptor expression or function, the company reported in its press release issued on Monday.

U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) has decided to uphold Celyad’s U.S. Patent No. 9,181,527, relating to allogeneic human primary T-cells that are engineered to be TCR-deficient and express a CAR.

“Allogeneic CAR T-cells are a promising avenue to broaden the scope of application of cell based immunotherapy”, said Georges Rawadi, VP Business Development and IP of Celyad. “We look forward to the further development of our own allogeneic programs and also continue to offer other parties access to this important patent to advance the field more broadly.”