RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. - Cesca Therapeutics Inc., a market leader in automated cell processing announced in a press release that on November 21, 2017, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) awarded the company a new US Patent, No. 9,821,111 (the ‘111 patent), entitled “Cell Separation Devices, Systems, and Methods.” This new patent covers Cesca’s proprietary method for separating rare, therapeutically critical target cells from blood, bone marrow, leukapheresis product, and other cell sources, while maintaining the viability of the cells under asceptic conditions. This advanced cell separation technology, known as Buoyancy-Activated Cell Separation, or BACS, is key to the ongoing development of Cesca’s CAR-TXpress™ platform.
“As we vigorously pursue our goal of becoming a leading player in the emerging field of personalized medicine, including exciting new immunotherapies such as CAR-T, it is critical that the uniqueness of our innovations are recognized by the USPTO and other global intellectual property regulatory agencies,” said Chris Xu, Cesca’s chief executive officer. “We believe our X-BACS technology, which is key to CAR-TXpress, allows us to address the unique needs of a broad range of potential partners, including CAR-T manufacturers, medical device companies, distributors and academic institutions. We are grateful to the USPTO for granting this latest patent, and we look forward to further strengthening our intellectual property estate in the coming months.”
“Our X-BACS technology is a key differentiator for our company, as it allows us to achieve industry-leading levels of target cell recovery and viability relative to competing cellular processing systems,” said Philip Coelho, chief technology officer of ThermoGenesis and co-inventor of the allowed patent. “As CAR-T manufacturers look to reproduce these individualized, ground-breaking treatments on a commercial scale, we believe our proprietary CAR-TXpress platform will play a key role in bringing these potentially life-savings treatments to as many patients as possible.”
The ‘111 patent is Cesca’s second in a series relating to its X-BACS technology. On July 28, 2017, Cesca announced that SynGen, Inc., which the company acquired on July 10, 2017, had been awarded US patent No. 9,695,394 (the ‘394 patent) covering the X-BACS apparatus. The ‘394 patent also allows for the automated isolation of cells with low density surface antigens, which was previously a major cellular manufacturing challenge.
Cesca’s X-BACS technology employs microscopic bubbles to isolate a specific cell type from a complex mixture of cells, such as blood. These microbubbles bear antibodies on their surface, enabling them to bind specifically to a single desired target cell type. When coated with microbubbles, the target cells float to the top of the host liquid, while non-target cells sink to the bottom - a process that can be accelerated by centrifugation. Subsequent collection of the floating target cell layer and release of the cells from their microbubbles provides a highly-purified preparation of just the cells of interest, with high recovery efficiency while retaining cell viability.
On October 3, 2017, Cesca announced that the USPTO had granted the company a Notice of Allowance for the ‘111 patent.