Micromet Receives Milestone Payment for Filing of the First Clinical Trial Application for MT203
April 02 2009 - 7:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
BETHESDA, Md., April 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Micromet, Inc.
(NASDAQ: MITI), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel,
proprietary antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation
and autoimmune diseases, today announced the filing of the first
clinical trial application (CTA) in Europe by its partner Nycomed
for the anti-GM-CSF antibody MT203. Micromet received a payment of
1.5 million Euro (US$ 2.0 million) from Nycomed for the achievement
of this milestone. Under a 2007 agreement between the two
companies, Micromet and Nycomed are developing MT203, a human
anti-GM-CSF antibody that may be useful for the treatment of
various inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Preclinical studies
support development of MT203 for the treatment of rheumatoid
arthritis and several other diseases, including multiple sclerosis,
psoriasis, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. "Since
the start of our collaboration with Nycomed in 2007, we have made
excellent progress on the preclinical development of MT203," said
Jens Hennecke, Micromet's Senior Vice President of Business
Development. "The filing of the CTA represents an important
milestone and we are looking forward to the start of clinical
trials with MT203." About Micromet Micromet, Inc.
(http://www.micromet-inc.com/) is a biopharmaceutical company with
offices in Bethesda, MD and Munich, Germany. The Company is focused
on developing novel, proprietary antibodies for the treatment of
cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases. The Company's novel
antibody technology is based on its proprietary BiTE(R) antibody
platform, representing a new class of antibodies that specifically
activate T cells from the patient's own immune system to eliminate
cancer cells or other disease related cells. Four of the Company's
antibodies are currently in clinical trials, with the remainder of
its product pipeline in preclinical development. The Company's lead
program is a BiTE antibody known as blinatumomab, or MT103. It is
in a phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with
acute lymphoblastic leukemia and a phase 1 clinical trial for the
treatment of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Micromet's
second BiTE antibody in clinical development is MT110, which
targets the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM). The Company
owns all rights to MT110, which is currently in a phase 1 clinical
trial for the treatment of patients with solid tumors. The
Company's third clinical stage antibody is adecatumumab, also known
as MT201, a traditional human monoclonal antibody that targets
EpCAM-expressing solid tumors. Micromet is developing adecatumumab
in collaboration with Merck Serono in a phase 1b clinical trial
evaluating adecatumumab in combination with docetaxel for the
treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Micromet
licensed a fourth clinical stage antibody, MT293, to TRACON
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MT293 is being developed in a phase 1
clinical trial for the treatment of patients with cancer. MT203 is
a traditional human antibody neutralizing the activity of
granulocyte/macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), which
has potential applications in the treatment of inflammatory and
autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, or
multiple sclerosis. MT203 is being developed in collaboration with
Nycomed, and the first clinical trial with MT203 is expected to be
initiated in the first half of 2009. Micromet has granted an
exclusive option to Bayer Schering Pharma AG to license a BiTE
antibody against an undisclosed solid tumor target. Additional BiTE
antibodies, targeting CEA, CD33, Her2, EGFR and MCSP, respectively,
are in different stages of preclinical development. Forward-Looking
Statements This release contains certain forward-looking statements
that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to be materially different from historical results or from
any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements include statements
regarding the expected timing of the start of clinical trials with
MT203, and the potential uses of MT203 and our other product
candidates. You are urged to consider statements that include the
words "looking forward," "ongoing," "may," "will," "believes,"
"potential," "expected," "plans," "anticipates," "intends," or the
negative of those words or other similar words to be uncertain and
forward-looking. Factors that may cause actual results to differ
materially from any future results expressed or implied by any
forward-looking statements include the risk that product candidates
that appeared promising in early research, preclinical studies or
clinical trials do not demonstrate safety and/or efficacy in
subsequent clinical trials, the risk that encouraging results from
early research, preclinical studies or clinical trials may not be
confirmed upon further analysis of the detailed results of such
research, preclinical study or clinical trial, the risk that
additional information relating to the safety, efficacy or
tolerability of our product candidates may be discovered upon
further analysis of preclinical or clinical trial data, the risk
that we or our collaborators will not obtain approval to market our
product candidates, the risks associated with reliance on outside
financing to meet capital requirements, and the risks associated
with reliance on collaborators, including MedImmune, Merck Serono,
TRACON and Nycomed, for the funding or conduct of further
development and commercialization activities relating to our
product candidates. These factors and others are more fully
discussed in Micromet's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal
year ended December 31, 2008, filed with the SEC on March 16, 2009,
as well as other filings by the company with the SEC. DATASOURCE:
Micromet, Inc. CONTACT: US Media, Andrea tenBroek, or Chris Stamm,
+1-781-684-0770, ; or European Media, Ludger Wess,
+49-40-8816-5964, ; or US Investors, Susan Noonan, +1-212-966-3650,
; or European Investors, Ines-Regina Buth, +49-30-2363-2768, Web
Site: http://www.micromet-inc.com/
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