Ocean Biomedical, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCEA) Announces Patent for PfGARP Malaria Antibodies Central to the Company’s Malaria Treatment and Prevention Platforms Page 1

Providence, RI, August 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ocean Biomedical (NASDAQ:OCEAN) today announced that its scientific co-founder Dr. Jonathan Kurtis, MD, PhD, has been appointed a key US patent for his groundbreaking discovery of a malaria therapeutic antibody that targets PfGARP. Since he went public with the news of his original research into PfGARP and its critical role in the malaria cycle in the magazine NATUREDr. Kurtis and his team have been working to deepen their understanding of how malaria parasites naturally cause death, and their control over that mechanism. Their expanded insights have already led to: 1.) a powerful vaccine candidate aimed at the long-term prevention of malaria infection; 2.) a therapeutic antibody candidate for the short-term prevention of malaria; and 3.) a therapeutic small molecule drug candidate aimed at the treatment of severe malaria, with the potential to bring an entirely new class of antimalarial drugs to market.

This patent adds to Ocean Biomedical’s global patent portfolio of more than 50 patents for discoveries with the potential to impact significant unmet medical needs. infectious disease, oncologyAnd fibrosisdeveloped with the help of grants totaling more than $125 million.

Kurtis’ novel approach causes parasite death at a key stage of the malaria cycle, triggering programmed cell death through apoptosis. This patent extends the protection of Dr. Kurtis’ new discoveries while the most common malaria strains are increasingly showing resistance to current artemisinin-based drugs.

“Inducing parasite cell death via targeting PfGARP is a novel approach that could potentially lead to an entirely new class of anti-malaria interventions, including mRNA-based vaccines, small molecule drugs, and our current monoclonal antibodies,” said Dr. Kurtis. “Our monoclonal antibodies and small molecule drugs come at a critical time as malaria parasites are developing resistance to current frontline therapies, and the currently approved vaccine provides only very limited protection.”

Dr. Jonathan Kurtis conducts research near Kisumu, Kenya, one of the most malaria-infested regions in the world

Addressing a Global Unmet Need

Malaria is the single largest killer of children worldwide, killing approximately 627,000 people in 2022. Artemisinin-based drug therapy remains the cornerstone of treatment, but the spread of parasites resistant to this family of agents threatens recent progress made by antimalarial campaigns and underscores the urgent need to identify new antimalarial drugs.