Argos Therapeutics Awarded Patent for Its Experimental Individualized Immunotherapy for the Treatment of HIV Infection

Argos Therapeutics Inc. ARGS ("Argos"), an immuno-oncology company focused on the development and commercialization of fully individualized immunotherapies based on the Arcelis® technology platform, announced that it has been issued U.S. Patent No. 9,085,807 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The issued claims relate to the company's AGS-004 product, which is currently being evaluated in an investigator initiated phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of HIV infection. The patent will expire in 2026, excluding any possible patent term extensions. HIV has a high mutation rate resulting in an infected individual carrying a mixture of many different variants. The ability of Argos' strain-independent amplification technology to produce large amounts of the vast array of variants from a small amount of blood or plasma allows the production of individualized immunotherapies matched to each patient's viral 'swarm.' This technology is used to manufacture AGS-004, an experimental immunotherapy for HIV, consisting of optimized dendritic cells electroporated with amplified RNA encoding HIV antigens which include a multitude of strain variants present for selected antigens. "We are excited that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted protection for this technology, which provides protection for our ability to customize immune responses to each patient's unique disease variants," said Charles Nicolette, chief scientific officer and vice president of research and development at Argos Therapeutics. "It adds to the continued strengthening of the immunotherapy opportunities using our proprietary Arcelis platform."