Anixa Biosciences Announces European Patent Issued for its CAR-T Cancer Therapy

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Anixa Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANIX), a biotechnology company focused on the treatment and prevention of cancer and infectious diseases, announced today that the European Patent Office has issued the first European patent for Anixa's novel CAR-T cancer treatment technology, which has been licensed from The Wistar Institute and is being developed in partnership with Moffitt Cancer Center.

The patent is titled, "METHODS AND COMPOSITIONS FOR TREATING CANCER," and the inventors are Drs. Jose Conejo-Garcia and Alfredo Perales-Puchalt, both formerly of The Wistar Institute. Dr. Conejo-Garcia is currently Chair of the Department of Immunology at Moffitt Cancer Center and Dr. Alfredo Perales-Puchalt is currently Vice President of R&D at Geneos Therapeutics. The patent is assigned to The Wistar Institute and Anixa Biosciences' majority-owned subsidiary, Certainty Therapeutics, Inc., which is the exclusive, world-wide licensee.

Dr. Amit Kumar, President and CEO of Anixa Biosciences, stated, "We are pleased that the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued this patent. This patent will provide protection of our technology throughout the European Union, in addition to the existing protection from our issued patent in the United States. Our CAR-T cancer technology takes advantage of specific hormone?hormone receptor biology to address malignancies and may hold promise to be the first successful CAR-T therapy against solid tumors.  While our initial focus is the treatment of ovarian cancer, the technology is broad and may also be effective in treating other solid tumors by exploiting an anti-angiogenesis mechanism of action."

Heather A. Steinman, PhD, MBA, Vice President of Business Development at The Wistar Institute said, "Issuance of this European patent along with the previously issued U.S. patent is a critical step in the advancement of our CAR-T technology, which has been exclusively licensed to Anixa's subsidiary, Certainty Therapeutics, Inc.  As a collaborator of and minority shareholder in Certainty, we support the continuing advancement of this novel, targeted immunotherapy into the clinic where we hope one day it may help provide alternative treatment choices for ovarian and other cancer patients."

Dr. Kumar continued, "We are expecting to file an IND application for our ovarian cancer CAR-T therapy by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2021. After we receive clearance from the FDA, we will begin the clinical studies at Moffitt Cancer Center."

About Anixa Biosciences, Inc.
Anixa is a publicly-traded biotechnology company developing a number of programs addressing cancer and infectious disease. Anixa's therapeutics portfolio includes a cancer immunotherapy program which uses a novel type of CAR-T, known as chimeric endocrine receptor T-cell (CER-T) technology, and a Covid-19 therapeutics program focused on inhibiting certain viral protein function. The company's vaccine portfolio includes a vaccine to prevent breast cancer, and specifically triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most deadly form of the disease, and a vaccine to prevent ovarian cancer. These vaccine technologies focus on immunizing against specific proteins that have been found to be expressed in certain forms of cancer. Anixa continually examines emerging technologies in complementary fields for further development and commercialization. Additional information is available at www.anixa.com.

Forward-Looking Statements: Statements that are not historical fact may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical facts, but rather reflect Anixa's current expectations concerning future events and results. We generally use the words "believes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," "likely," "will" and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements, including those concerning our expectations, involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control, which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors include, but are not limited to, those factors set forth in "Item 1A - Risk Factors" and other sections of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K as well as in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. You are cautioned not to unduly rely on such forward-looking statements when evaluating the information presented in this press release.

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SOURCE Anixa Biosciences, Inc.