The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted AIM ImmunoTech a patent for using its experimental drug Ampligen alongside Merck's cancer immunotherapy Keytruda. The company said in an August 31 announcement that the patent runs to December 2039.
The patent's broadest claim covers any cancer where giving the two drugs together works better than either drug alone — or better than simply adding their separate effects. Separately listed claims in the same patent name pancreatic, ovarian, colorectal, breast, lung, skin, bladder, melanoma, head and neck, and kidney cancers, but the broad claim is not restricted to any of them.
For someone holding the stock, the catch is straightforward: a patent protects a method of treatment, but the method has to exist as an approved therapy before the protection has commercial meaning. Ampligen has not received FDA approval to treat any cancer. The company's own cautionary filings note that clinical trial results cannot be guaranteed, and significant work remains before any regulatory submission would be possible.
Keytruda works by releasing a brake that cancer cells can use to hide from the immune system. AIM says in its release that it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Merck.
Shares closed 12.54% lower at $0.2260 after the company announced the patent grant, on dollar volume of about $28 million.
The new patent joins related filings AIM says it already holds in the U.S., the Netherlands, and Japan, all running to 2039, covering Ampligen's use alongside similar immunotherapy classes. The company's stated clinical priority is late-stage pancreatic cancer — one of the specific diseases named in the new patent. Chief Executive Thomas Equels called it in the announcement "the central focus of our late-stage oncology strategy."