US Patent to be granted for iNKT Cell Therapy Platform
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 28 August 2025: Arovella Therapeutics Ltd (ASX: ALA), a biotechnology company focused on developing its invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cell therapy platform, is pleased to announce that the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a Notice of Allowance on 15 August 2025 indicating their intention to grant a patent from US patent application no. 16/977,346 directed to Arovella’s iNKT cell therapy platform, which is under licence to Arovella from Imperial College Innovations Limited.
The patent application, which covers the manufacturing of CAR-iNKT cells, is expected to proceed to grant in 2025 following completion of the grant formalities. Once granted, the patent will have a term of protection to at least 28 February 2039, subject to any patent term adjustment.
The US Patent Application No. 16/977,346 is titled “TRANSDUCTION AND EXPANSION OF CELLS”.
The allowance of US 16/977,346 accompanies granted patents in Europe, Canada and Hong Kong, an accepted patent application in Australia, and additional corresponding applications, including divisional patent applications, in Cananda, China, Europe and Hong Kong.
Arovella’s CEO and MD, Dr Michael Baker, commented: “Receiving notice that this US patent application will proceed to grant is an excellent milestone for the technology, particularly as we move closer to taking our lead product, ALA-101, into first-in-human clinical trials. We are very excited by the prospect of demonstrating the value of our platform and to having a positive impact on the lives of many cancer patients. Despite the current environment in the US, the US remains an important target market for Arovella, so having granted patent claims to support our strategy is excellent.”
The completed pre-clinical studies demonstrate that CAR19-iNKT cells are a robust therapeutic option for eliminating haematological malignancies (blood cancers) that produce CD19, with further enhanced activity against cancers that also produce CD1d.
Arovella has also licensed a novel armouring strategy, IL-12-TM, from the University of North Carolina, from the laboratory of Professor Gianpietro Dotti, and a novel Claudin 18.2-targeting CAR that Arovella intends to develop to target gastric cancer and potentially pancreatic cancer. The manufacturing process covered by the allowed claims of US 16/977,346 will also be used for these new products.
