Opexa Announces Granting of New T-cell Patents Covering Tcelna(R); Patent Estate Increases to 160 Issued Patents

Opexa Therapeutics, Inc.

, a biopharmaceutical company developing personalized immunotherapies for autoimmune disorders including multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica (NMO), today announced the issuance of four additional key patents covering its broad T-cell immunotherapy platform. The recent allowances bring the number of granted U.S. and international patents in Opexa's patent portfolio to 160, including in-licensed patents. The expansion of Opexa's intellectual property portfolio further strengthens the patent estate surrounding Tcelna(R), Opexa's personalized T-cell immunotherapy in development for the treatment of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Recently-granted European Patent Nos. 1546719, 2016414 and 2420833 are directed to Opexa's proprietary methods for preparing individualized T-cell vaccines, while European Patent No. 2363710 is directed to the autologous T-cell vaccine compositions themselves. The claims cover the use of particular immunodominant epitopes found in myelin basic protein, proteolipid protein and myelin oligodendrocyte protein in the preparation of such T-cell vaccines, as well as the identification and use of specific antigenic epitopes that are disease-relevant for individual patients from these and other polypeptide antigens. "We are very pleased with the issuance of the new European patents and the continued growth of our intellectual property portfolio," stated Neil K. Warma, President and Chief Executive Officer of Opexa. "This family of patents is key to protecting and strengthening our intellectual property position surrounding our personalized T-cell immunotherapy for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. We continue to be aggressive in the strengthening of our patent estate and have also recently submitted new patent applications related to our proprietary epitope screening assay and potency assay."