Cellmid Ltd (ASX:CDY) has strengthened and secured the intellectual property (IP) in its midkine antibodies portfolio after being granted a US patent and advancing a European patent.

The US Patent Office granted the patent application entitled "Antibody recognizing N-domain of midkine".

In addition, Cellmid received a ‘Notification of Intention to Grant’ from the European Patent Office for the corresponding patent in key European territories.

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The newly granted midkine antibody patents and allied patent families underpin the company’s dominant IP position over the use of therapeutic midkine antibodies for the treatment of diseases.

These diseases arise from cancer, chronic inflammation, surgical adhesions and functional disorders in T-regulatory cells associated with autoimmune diseases.

Midkine is an important early marker for diagnosing diseases

Midkine is a growth factor that is highly expressed during embryonic development.

It modulates many important biological interactions such as cell growth that are relevant to cancer, inflammation, autoimmunity, ischemia, nerve growth/repair and wound healing.

Midkine is barely detectable in healthy adults midkine expression is often evident very early in disease onset, even before any apparent physical symptoms.

Accordingly, midkine is an important early marker for diagnosing cancers and autoimmune diseases.

Finally, midkine is only evident in a disease context, and targeting midkine is not expected to harm normal healthy tissues.