On Friday September 11, 2020, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) and the Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT) submitted comments to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) regarding the “Prospective Grant of an Exclusive Patent License: Anti-CD56 as an Antibody-Drug Conjugate (“ADC”) or Non-ADC To Target Glioblastoma Either Alone or in Combination With Other Potential Immuno-Oncology Drugs” (85 FR 53390). The technology is to be licensed to Connectyx Technologies Holdings Group (“Connectyx”) located in Boca Raton, FL.
While the company first incorporated in 1995, the Connectyx Technologies Holdings Group appears to have operated under at least five different names over the years, and to have no FDA-regulated products. A financial report for the company notes that it uses “virtual office space”. Why is the NIH licensing a potentially important cancer treatment to a company with little public information, no FDA-approved products, and no development or manufacturing facilities?
A PDF of KEI’s full comments is available here: KEI_UACT_Comments_NIH_License_Connectyx
(For more KEI comments on NIH licenses, see: https://www.keionline.org/nih-licenses)