European Patent EP3004337 Upheld by the EPO in Favor of Cellectis, Refers to the Method of Preparing T-Cells for Immunotherapy Using the RNA-Guided CRISPR-Cas9 Nuclease System

New York, NY (Press Release) – Cellectis (Euronext Growth: ALCLS; Nasdaq: CLLS), a bio­pharma­ceu­tical com­pany focused on devel­op­ing immuno­therapies based on gene-edited allo­geneic CAR T-cells (UCART), today announced that European Patent EP3004337, which claims a method of preparing T-cells for immuno­therapy using the CRISPR-Cas9 sys­tem, initially granted on August 2, 2017, has been upheld by the European Patent Office (EPO) fol­low­ing an op­po­si­tion pro­ce­dure ini­ti­ated in May 2018.

European Patent EP3004337 claims a method of genetically modifying T-cells by in­tro­duc­tion into the cells and/or ex­pres­sion in the cells of an RNA-guided endonuclease, and a specific guide RNA that directs an endonuclease to at least one targeted locus in the T-cell genome, where it is ex­pressed from transfected mRNA and guide RNA is ex­pressed in the cells as a transcript from a DNA vector. The patent also covers the ex­pan­sion phase of the resulting cells in vitro.

The inventors of this patent are Dr. André Choulika, Chairman and CEO, Cellectis, Dr. Philippe Duchateau, Chief Scientific Officer, Cellectis and Dr. Laurent Poirot, VP, Immunology Department, Cellectis.

To date, the upheld patent has a validity period extended to 2034.

About Cellectis

Cellectis is devel­op­ing the first of its kind allo­geneic ap­proach for CAR-T immuno­therapies in on­col­ogy, pioneering the concept of off-the-shelf and ready-to-use gene-edited CAR T-cells to treat cancer patients. As a clin­i­cal-stage bio­pharma­ceu­tical com­pany with over 19 years of ex­per­tise in gene edit­ing, Cellectis is devel­op­ing life-changing prod­uct can­di­dates uti­liz­ing TALEN®, its pro­pri­e­tary gene edit­ing tech­nology, and PulseAgile, its pioneering electroporation sys­tem to harness the power of the immune sys­tem in order to target and eradicate cancer cells.

As part of its com­mitment to a cure, Cellectis remains dedicated to its goal of providing life-saving UCART prod­uct can­di­dates to address unmet needs for multiple cancers in­clud­ing acute myeloid leukemia (AML), B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), multiple myeloma (MM), Hodgkin lym­phoma (HL) and non-Hodgkin lym­phoma (NHL).

Cellectis headquarters are in Paris, France, with addi­tional locations in New York, New York and Raleigh, North Carolina. Cellectis is listed on the Nasdaq Global Market (ticker: CLLS) and on Euro­next Growth (ticker: ALCLS). For more in­for­ma­tion, visit www.cellectis.com.

Follow Cellectis on social media: @cellectis, LinkedIn and YouTube.

TALEN® is a registered trademark owned by Cellectis.

Disclaimer

This press release con­tains “forward-looking” state­ments that are based on our man­agement’s current ex­pec­ta­tions and assump­tions and on in­for­ma­tion cur­rently avail­able to man­agement. Forward-looking state­ments in­volve­ known and unknown risks, un­cer­tainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, per­for­mance or achieve­ments to be ma­teri­ally dif­fer­en­t from any future results, per­for­mance or achieve­ments ex­pressed or implied by the for­ward-looking state­ments. Further in­for­ma­tion on the risk factors that may affect com­pany business and fi­nan­cial per­for­mance is in­cluded in Cellectis’ Annual Report on Form 20-F and the fi­nan­cial report (including the man­agement report) for the year ended De­cem­ber 31, 2018 and sub­se­quent filings Cellectis makes with the Se­cu­ri­ties Ex­change Com­mis­sion from time to time. Except as required by law, we assume no obli­ga­tion to update these for­ward-looking state­ments publicly, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ ma­teri­ally from those antic­i­pated in the for­ward-looking state­ments, even if new in­for­ma­tion be­comes avail­able in the future.

Source: Cellectis.