UCLA says otherwise: UCLA’s patent portfolio is broader than what is exclusively licensed to NWBO—there can be distinct UCLA patents (or claims) not included in the NWBO license, especially for different cancer types, methods, or use cases. NWBO does not receive ownership; UCLA retains the right to license unencumbered IP to other companies or develop it internally if the relevant fields of use or geographic scope were not included in the NWBO deal. This is standard practice for university-held IP.? Source: UCLA
As an example, NWBO recently secured an exclusive license from Roswell Park for different, newly filed dendritic cell technology not derived from UCLA work, highlighting that exclusivity is portfolio- and deal-specific, not necessarily universal across all dendritic cell IP in the academic community.?
Therefore, UCLA can—and does—maintain independent exclusivity for patents that are not part of the NWBO license, and the overall dendritic cell vaccine patent space remains quite segmented by institution, inventor, geography, and indication. Source: UCLA
In addition, there are many other dendritic cell vaccines with distinct IP for use in various tumor types.
Medigene AG: Holds patents in Europe (licensed from Helmholtz Zentrum München) for its dendritic cell vaccine platform, including methods for in vitro maturation and vaccine applications in leukemia.?
Asgard Therapeutics: Granted a U.S. patent (US 11,345,891) covering methods for cell reprogramming to induce dendritic cell fate as the basis for its TrojanDC gene therapy program.?
Dendreon Pharmaceuticals: Holds patents for Provenge®, an FDA-approved dendritic cell-based cancer vaccine for prostate cancer.?
Precigen Corporation: Listed among leading companies in this space focusing on DC vaccine development.?
BriaCell: Holds patents for cancer immunotherapy that include dendritic cell technologies.?
Regen BioPharma: Filed patents for mRNA dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines (dCellVax product).?
University of Florida: Has patents and development activities related to dendritic cell vaccines, including core patent filings and clinical trials for their technology.?
These entities have contributed major patents and technologies besides UCLA, shaping the current research and commercial DC vaccine landscape.
Mayo Clinic holds patents related to dendritic cell vaccines. Patent filings and licensing agreements confirm Mayo’s intellectual property in the development of DC vaccines for cancer therapy. For example, MGFB (a subsidiary of FairWinds Bio) entered into a patent license agreement with Mayo Clinic to advance experimental cancer vaccine therapeutics based on novel Mayo Clinic-developed platforms. These platforms aim to target immune escape and tumor resistance using broad tumor-associated antigen libraries and recombinant vector vaccine technology.?
Additionally, Mayo inventor Keith Knutson is listed on a patent (“Immunity to Folate Receptors”) involving dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines, which has been licensed to Marker Therapeutics. Multiple other patents associated with autologous dendritic cell therapies have Mayo Clinic inventors and applicants named in the filings.?
Therefore, Mayo Clinic possesses and licenses a portfolio of patents covering dendritic cell vaccine technologies for various solid tumors and immune therapies.
Bullish