Released: Monday 18th March 2024

First-in-class therapy now patent-protected in all major markets, including USA, Europe, China, Japan and Canada

Medannex, a clinical-stage UK biopharmaceutical company developing innovative treatments for cancers and autoimmune diseases, today announced the grant of several patents in key territories worldwide.

Recent weeks have seen new grants in the USA, China, Japan and Canada protecting the composition of matter of Medannex’s therapeutic antibodies, including lead asset MDX-124, the first clinic-ready therapy to target annexin-A1. These patents further strengthen the company’s intellectual property portfolio, which already includes numerous granted patents in Europe, the USA and elsewhere.

A recent Nature publication shows that MDX-124 significantly reduces cancer growth and proliferation in various tumour types, and data presented at the American Association of Cancer Research Annual Meeting demonstrates that the first-in-class therapy also has a significant anti-migratory effect and harnesses the immune system to attack tumours.

MDX-124 is currently undergoing a Phase 1b clinical study (‘ATTAINMENT’) at three major cancer centres in the UK, to confirm its safety and determine the optimum dose for subsequent clinical studies. Module 2 will begin later this year, evaluating the first-in-class therapy’s impact in patients recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

The study’s innovative modular design allows for the quick and easy addition of alternative tumour types in which annexin-A1 also plays a role (eg triple-negative breast, colorectal, lung, prostate, liver, gastric and cholangiocarcinoma). Annexin-A1 is also implicated in several autoimmune diseases – including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus - and Medannex is preparing for further clinical studies in this area.

Medannex CEO, Ian Abercrombie, said "Annexin-A1 is known to drive many diseases, but until now it has proven difficult to target specifically, due to its structural similarity to other proteins in the body. The Medannex team is proud to have developed the first therapeutic that can achieve target specificity, and we’re confident that MDX-124 will have a global impact on the treatment of various cancers and autoimmune conditions. As we progress through initial clinical studies in oncology and prepare for the first clinical study in autoimmune disease, we’re delighted to have significantly strengthened our intellectual property portfolio with these new patent grants in key territories worldwide”.

About Medannex Ltd: Medannex is a clinical-stage Scottish biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Edinburgh. The company is developing novel treatments for various cancers, autoimmune diseases and other conditions: https://medannex.org

About MDX-124: MDX-124 is a humanised monoclonal antibody, and the first agent that specifically targets and inhibits annexin-A1 to enter clinical trials. Annexin-A1 is a protein known to play a key role in the development of cancers, autoimmune diseases and other conditions. A first in human clinical study (‘ATTAINMENT’) is underway. The FDA has granted MDX-124 Orphan Designation for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, which is the third most common cause of cancer-related death in the US (American Cancer Society, 2022) and therefore represents a significant unmet clinical need. MDX-124 was also awarded Orphan Medicinal Product positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as well as an Innovation Passport as part of the Innovative Licencing and Access Pathway (ILAP) from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

About the ‘ATTAINMENT’ clinical study: The ‘ATTAINMENT’ study is a modular, multi-arm, first in human study to evaluate the safety and tolerability of MDX-124, alone and in combination with established anti-cancer treatments, in participants with locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic solid malignancies.