Cellectar Biosciences has received another patent by the Japanese Patent Office, this time for its proprietary phospholipid-ether (PLE), the company announced today.

According to a release, the patent provides composition of matter and use protection for the company’s PLE, targeted delivery vehicle analogs in combination with a broad range of commonly used chemotherapeutic classes such as alkaloids, nucleoside analogs, as well as other classes of small molecule chemotherapeutic agents.

“This patent represents an important part of Cellectar’s expanding intellectual property portfolio as the company continues to generate value from R&D and expansion of its PDC franchise,” Cellectar Biosciences CEO James Caruso said in a statement. “Our expanded portfolio now provides intellectual property protection for our small molecule franchise in the major global markets of the U.S., Europe and Japan.”

Cellectar previously received Japanese patents for CLR 131, CLR 1501 and CLR 1502.