SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 24, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Immunomedics, Inc. (Nasdaq:IMMU), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer and other serious diseases, announced that its humanized anti-CD74 antibody, milatuzumab, showed promising therapeutic activity for B-cell lymphoma in animal models. This activity can be enhanced when combined with anti-CD20 antibodies. Rhona Stein, Ph.D., of the Garden State Cancer Center in Belleville, NJ, presented these preclinical results at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics: Discovery, Biology, and Clinical Applications in San Francisco, CA.
Milatuzumab was tested in comparison to and in combination with veltuzumab, a humanized anti-CD20 antibody from Immunomedics, in mice bearing human B-cell lymphoma transplants. Median survival time (MST) for untreated animals was 36 days. Veltuzumab extended MST to 70 days, while milatuzumab treatment increased survival further to 90.5 days. However, when both antibodies were combined, MST improved significantly to 113 days.
"Milatuzumab is a promising candidate antibody for the therapy of B-cell lymphoma as a naked antibody, and shows significantly improved efficacy when combined with anti-CD20 antibodies," concluded Dr. Stein, principal investigator of the study.
Developed by scientists at Immunomedics, milatuzumab is currently in Phase I/II studies for patients with multiple myeloma who have failed at least two prior standard systemic anti-myeloma treatment regimens. In addition, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, led by John P. Leonard, MD, is conducting a Phase I, open-label study in patients with recurrent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia who have progressed after at least one prior standard treatment. This clinical study is funded in part by a grant to Weill Medical College from the National Cancer Institute.
About Milatuzumab
Milatuzumab is a humanized anti-CD74 antibody constructed using the same human backbone as epratuzumab, whose safety has been demonstrated in clinical trials of patients with B-cell malignancies and autoimmune disorders. Milatuzumab is being studied for the treatment of multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
About Immunomedics
Immunomedics is a New Jersey-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of monoclonal, antibody-based products for the targeted treatment of cancer, autoimmune and other serious diseases. We have developed a number of advanced proprietary technologies that allow us to create humanized antibodies that can be used either alone in unlabeled or "naked" form, or conjugated with radioactive isotopes, chemotherapeutics or toxins, in each case to create highly targeted agents. Using these technologies, we have built a pipeline of therapeutic product candidates that utilize several different mechanisms of action. We have exclusively licensed our lead product candidate, epratuzumab, to UCB (www.ucb-group.com) for the treatment of all autoimmune disease indications worldwide. Epratuzumab's most advanced program is for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). At present, there is no cure for lupus and no new lupus drug has been approved in the U.S. in the last 40 years. We have retained the rights for epratuzumab in oncology indications for which UCB has been granted a buy-in option. The Company is conducting clinical trials with veltuzumab in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, epratuzumab as a potential therapeutic for patients with lymphoma and leukemia, 90Y-epratuzumab for the therapy of patients with lymphoma, 90Y-hPAM4 for pancreas cancer therapy and milatuzumab as a therapy for patients with multiple myeloma. We believe that our portfolio of intellectual property, which includes approximately 108 patents issued in the United States, and more than 250 other issued patents worldwide, protects our product candidates and technologies. We also have a majority ownership in IBC Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which is developing a novel Dock-and-Lock (DNL) methodology, and a new method of delivering imaging and therapeutic agents selectively to disease, especially different solid cancers (colorectal, lung, pancreas, etc.), by proprietary, antibody-based, pretargeting methods. For additional information on us, please visit our web site at http://www.immunomedics.com. The information on our website does not, however, form a part of this press release.
This release, in addition to historical information, may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements, including statements regarding clinical trials, out-licensing arrangements (including the timing and amount of contingent payments), forecasts of future operating results, and capital raising activities, involve significant risks and uncertainties and actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied herein. Factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to, risks associated with new product development (including clinical trials outcome and regulatory requirements/actions), our dependence on our licensing partner for the further development of epratuzumab for autoimmune indications, competitive risks to marketed products and availability of required financing and other sources of funds on acceptable terms, if at all, as well as the risks discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company is not under any obligation, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation, to update or alter any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.