The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted a new patent (US Patent number: 11,149,079) to BPL for its ‘E+I’ process, granted in the US.
The patent relates to the process for extracting Immunoglobulin (IgG), from an unused waste precipitate produced during normal plasma fractionation processes via a separate fractionation process, thereby increasing the overall yield of IgG from blood plasma.
This means that the process conceived and developed at BPL to improve IgG yields is protected, and other companies cannot, without our license, use the technology or sell any products made using the same process in the US. John More, Director for R&D and Tara Dolan, Head of Bioprocessing invented the process on BPL’s site in Elstree. BPL made a £30million investment in new facilities for the ‘E+I’ process, which was installed and commissioned in 2019, and approved for production of licensed medicines in March 2020. It has now been in use for 2 years and has achieved the expected IgG yield improvement.
This patent adds to an already accomplished portfolio for BPL.
John More, said, “We are delighted to have received this new patent, which we’ve worked hard on for several years to achieve, and which will protect our intellectual property on the ‘E+I’ process in the US. Similar patents in Europe and other countries are also being progressed. I would like to thank Tara Dolan, Dani Mount, Peter Feldman and our patent lawyer, Annabel Beacham at Dehns, for their invaluable help and advice in taking this patent through to grant.”