MMRGlobal Receives Cancer-Fighting Anti-CD20 Monoclonal Antibodies
Patent in Korea
LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwired - Jan 31, 2014) - MMRGlobal, Inc.
(OTCQB: MMRF) ("MMR"), a leading provider of Personal Health
Records (PHRs), MyEsafeDepositBox storage solutions and electronic
document management and imaging systems for healthcare
professionals,
today announced that the Company has received confirmation of its
first issued patent application for its cancer fighting anti-CD20
monoclonal antibodies in South Korea. This is the fourth
country to issue this patent as a result of the Expedited Patent
Allowance Program which follows the issuance of U.S. patents to MMR
for its anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies. The South Korean patent
will be issued under the title "Antibodies and Methods For Making
and Using Them." The Company also reported that an additional
divisional South Korean patent application No. 10-2013-7022383 was
filed on August 23, 2013 which case remains pending. The issuance
of U.S. Patent No. 8,465,741 on June 18, 2013 provided the Company
with the mechanism to request expedited examination of the
equivalent patent claims in numerous international markets. The
filings are part of MMRGlobal's plan to expand the scope of its
biotech assets and other intellectual property, in particular, the
Company's issued U.S. Patent No. 8,465,741 directed at its
anti-CD20 antibody assets, which has also been granted in Mexico
and Australia. MMR also holds additional patents pertaining to
its B-cell idiotype vaccine worldwide.
The Company's strategy of filing divisional patent applications
in countries of commercial interest like China, Japan and South
Korea is allowing it to take advantage of an international treaty
to expedite receiving patents based on existing approvals in the
U.S. The newest patent and patent application will help provide
additional protection of the Company's specific antibodies that
have particular utility in fighting cancers. MMR's anti-CD20
monoclonal antibodies are important assets of the Company, the
value and benefit of which are demonstrated by how these antibodies
are used commercially in products like Rituxan®, an anti-CD20
monoclonal antibody which is due to go off patent in 2015.
Additional patent applications for the Company's antibodies are
also pending in a number of other countries or regional authorities
including Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Europe, and
Japan, with additional patent applications in Australia and South
Korea. The Company's anti-CD20 antibodies were developed to help
provide low-cost alternatives for treatments like Rituxan® in
connection with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other cancers widely
considered too expensive for the world population of patients who
need costlier forms of treatment to live.
MMRGlobal, through its wholly owned subsidiary MyMedicalRecords,
Inc., also owns numerous health information technology patents
issued or pending related to providing online medical and Personal
Health Records in 12 countries or regional authorities of
commercial interest. These include the U.S., where MMR has 10
issued patents and over 400 claims as well as additional
applications and continuation applications, Australia, Singapore,
New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea,
Israel, and Europe. MMR also has hundreds of claims either
pending or published related to health IT worldwide.
In biotech, the Company has invested more than $100 million in
research and development on its FavId™ vaccine trials and use of
customized tumor cells to treat lymphoma patients and other
technologies. MMR has continued to make progress in protecting
the Company's IP, including its anti-CD20 antibodies and B-Cell
vaccine patents entitled "Method and Composition for Altering a
B-Cell Mediated Pathology," which relate to methods of
manufacturing compositions for B-Cell vaccines used in the fight
against lymphoma and potentially other forms of cancer.
The anti-CD20 antibodies were part of a portfolio of biotech
assets and other intellectual property originally spun off from the
Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. The Company has an active biotech
licensing program and has already signed licensing agreements worth
in excess of twelve million dollars from which it has received
nearly one million dollars. Although MMRGlobal continues working to
license and otherwise exploit an extensive portfolio of biotech
assets, including data from vaccine trials, thousands of patient
tumor samples and other intellectual property, it remains focused
on its primary health IT business.
About MMRGlobal MMRGlobal, Inc., through its wholly-owned
operating subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc., provides secure and
easy-to-use online Personal Health Records ("PHRs") and electronic
safe deposit box storage solutions, serving consumers, healthcare
professionals, employers, insurance companies, financial
institutions, retail pharmacies, and professional organizations and
affinity groups. The MyMedicalRecords PHR enables individuals and
families to access their medical records and other important
documents, such as birth certificates, passports, insurance
policies and wills, anytime from anywhere using the Internet.
MyMedicalRecords is built on proprietary, patented technologies to
allow documents, images and voicemail messages to be transmitted
and stored in the system using a variety of methods, including fax,
phone, or file upload without relying on any specific electronic
medical record platform to populate a user's account. The Company's
professional offering, MMRPro, is designed to give physicians'
offices an easy and cost-effective solution to digitizing
paper-based medical records and sharing them with patients through
an integrated patient portal. Through its merger with Favrille,
Inc. in January 2009, the Company acquired intellectual property
biotech assets that include anti-CD20 antibodies and data and
samples from its FavId™/Specifid™ vaccine clinical trials for the
treatment of B-Cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. To learn more about
MMRGlobal, Inc. visit www.mmrglobal.com. View demos and video
tutorials of the Company's products and services at
www.mmrtheater.com.
Forward-Looking Statements All statements in this press release
that are not strictly historical in nature, including, without
limitation, intellectual property enforcement actions, infringement
claims or litigation, intellectual property licenses, and future
performance, management's expectations, beliefs, intentions,
estimates or projections, constitute "forward-looking statements."
Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual
results to be materially different from historical results or from
any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Some can be identified by the use of words (and their
derivations) such as "need," "possibility," "potential," "intend,"
"offer," "development," "if," "negotiate," "when," "begun,"
"believe," "achieve," "will," "estimate," "expect," "maintain,"
"plan," and "continue," or the negative of these words. Actual
outcomes and results of operations and the timing of selected
events may differ materially from the results predicted, and any
reported results should not be considered as an indication of
future performance. Such statements are necessarily based on
assumptions and estimates and are subject to various risks and
uncertainties, including those relating to the possible invalidity
of the underlying assumptions and estimates and possible changes or
developments in economic, business, industry, market, legal and
regulatory circumstances and conditions and actions taken or
omitted to be taken by third parties, including customers,
suppliers, business partners, potential licensees, competitors and
legislative, judicial and other governmental authorities and
officials. Factors that could cause or contribute to such
differences include, but are not limited to: unexpected outcomes
with respect to intellectual property enforcement actions, claims
of intellectual property infringement and general intellectual
property litigation; our ability to maintain, develop, monetize and
protect our patent portfolio for both the Company's health IT and
biotechnology intellectual property assets in the U.S. and
internationally; the timing of milestone payments in
connection with licensing our intellectual property; our ability to
establish and maintain strategic relationships; changes in our
relationships with our licensees; the risk the Company's products
are not adopted or viewed favorably by the healthcare community and
consumer retail market; business prospects, results of operations
or financial condition; risks related to the current uncertainty
and instability in financial and lending markets, including global
economic uncertainties; the timing and volume of sales and
installations; the length of sales cycles and the installation
process; the market's acceptance of new product and service
introductions; competitive product offerings and promotions;
changes in government laws and regulations and future changes in
tax legislation and initiatives in the healthcare industry;
undetected errors in our products; the possibility of interruption
at our data centers; risks related to third party vendors; risks
related to obtaining and integrating third-party licensed
technology; risks related to a security breach by third parties;
risks associated with recruitment and retention of key personnel;
other litigation matters; uncertainties associated with doing
business internationally across borders and territories; and
additional risks discussed in the Company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company is providing
this information as of the date of this release and, except as
required by applicable law, does not undertake any obligation to
update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as
a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
CONTACT: Michael Selsman Public Communications Co.
ms@publiccommunications.biz (310) 922-7033