San Antonio cancer biotech follows IPO with patent win in China
NOVEMBER 2, 2022
As published in the San Antonio Business Journal
By: By W. Scott Bailey – Senior Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
The People’s Republic of China has awarded a Certificate of Patent to a subsidiary of San Antonio-based bioAffinity Technologies Inc. for its initial cancer therapeutic.
OncoSelect, which is wholly owned by bioAffinity, has secured similar patent protections from Mexico and Australia for potential cancer treatments using novel compounds of porphyrin conjugates. The therapeutic patents are the first awarded to bioAffinity Technologies (Nasdaq: BIAF), which has sought to expand beyond its core cancer diagnostic business.
“These patents add to a strong patent portfolio protecting our diagnostic discoveries, including our CyPath Lung test for the early detection of lung cancer,” bioAffinity President and CEO Maria Zannes told me.
The patents give bioAffinity protection through 2037. An estimated 4.5 million people are expected to receive a cancer diagnosis of some sort this year in China, and more than 3 million people are expected to die from the disease, which is the leading cause of death in that country, according to Zannes.
Nearly 200,000 people in Mexico are diagnosed with cancer annually, and an estimated one in 18 Australians are expected to have a personal history of cancer by 2040, she said.
Still a relatively young company, bioAffinity’s therapeutic discoveries are tied to research related to the advancement of its non-invasive lung cancer diagnostic. The intellectual property associated with CyPath Lung, a laboratory developed test that San Antonio-based Precision Pathology Services began actively marketing for sale to physicians in late summer. There could be some indication of how that launch is going when bioAffinity releases its initial earnings as a public company later this month.
OncoSelect is an early-stage company that plans to move to initial animal studies next year. The plan, Zannes said, is to show the efficacy of the technology and then license it to a large pharmaceutical company that would take over more expensive later-stage research.
“We would get some milestone payments,” she said.
Combined, bioAffinity and OncoSelect now hold patents in the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
“BioAffinity’s therapeutic efforts are at an early stage, but the results of our research are promising,” Zannes said. “The recent grant of patents by China, Mexico and Australia directed to the treatment of cancer begins to build our therapeutic patent portfolio.”
In September, bioAffinity, which now employs 15 people, wrapped up an initial public offering that funneled nearly $16 million into the company. Zannes said new access to capital markets will be critical as leadership looks to grow the company.
“Advancing CyPath Lung resulted in discoveries that we believe have strong potential to develop into broad-spectrum cancer therapies,” Zannes said. “The award of our patents in China, Mexico and Australia provide protection necessary to bring our products to the world market.”
