Biocept expands Chinese patent protection

Fourteenth issued patent covers unique stain for detection of rare cells of interest including circulating tumor cells 

Biocept (NASDAQ: BIOC) announces the grant of a Chinese patent entitled, METHODS AND REAGENTS FOR SIGNAL AMPLIFICATION. The issued patent corresponds to the current Chinese Patent Application No. 201180056340.0 and covers the use of a novel stain in the detection of rare cells such as CTCs from blood and other biological fluids. This newly awarded patent works in combination with a patent previously granted to Biocept in China that corresponds to the use of a microchannel to capture and interrogate rare cells.

The issuance of this patent provides additional protection in China to Biocept’s key technologies that are core to its CTC platform. This staining method is a component of the Company’s proprietary Cell Enrichment and Extraction (CEE™) platform, providing for the high-efficiency capture, visualization, and microscopic analysis of targeted cells that are obtained from a patient’s blood sample and used by physicians to aid in medical decision making.

Lyle Arnold, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Biocept, said, “The issuance of this patent further strengthens our patent protection in China covering our core technologies that are central to Biocept’s platform for the transport, capture, enrichment, identification and analysis of CTCs from blood samples and other biological sample types.”

Michael Nall, Biocept’s President and Chief Executive Officer, added “We continue to broaden the intellectual property protection for our unique methods of capturing and analyzing cancer cells in blood and other biological fluids. The granting of patents overseas supports our initiatives to expand the distribution and adoption of our liquid biopsy platform around the world and to enable patients to gain access to the best technologies in their fight against cancer.”