Archive for the ‘bispecific antibodies’ Category

Micromet Continues To Over-Deliver

Thursday, June 5th, 2008

In an industry where most companies over-promise and under-deliver, a company that exceeds even the most optimistic expectations is a unique phenomenon. This morning, while most eyes were still turned towards Chicago following ASCO, Micromet (MITI) managed to present another impressive set of clinical data in the picturesque town of Lugano, Switzerland. The data is from an ongoing phase I trial for the evaluation of the company’s lead product, MT103, in Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL), a trial which had already produced impressive results.

Although the actual scientific poster is not yet publically available, according to the company’s recent press release, MT103 led to an impressive clinical response among 7 heavily pre-treated NHL patients. When given MT103 at the highest dose so far in the trial, all 7 patients achieved a significant reduction in tumor burden in the form of either a complete or partial response. Importantly, those responses are durable and are currently ongoing in all seven patients, with the longest remission ongoing for more than one year.

Evidently, the data is still very preliminary, as it is being derived from a small non-controlled phase I trial. Nevertheless, having 100% clinical activity with such durability in such a late-stage patient population bodes extremely well for the prospects of MT-103. More importantly, this is yet another validation of Micromet’s revolutionary BiTE platform, which can be utilized to develop an unlimited number of drug candidates for various cancer types.

Author is long MITI

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Micromet - Biting Cancer (Part II)

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

BiTE Antibodies 

A BiTE (Bispecific T Cell Engager) antibody is a bi-specific antibody (bsAb) which directs T-cells to attack  cancer cells, by simultaneously binding the two cells. Upon binding, a physical link is created between  the two cells, which in turn triggers the T cell to attack the target cell. Every BiTE antibody has two binding arms, the first binds the CD3 receptor present on T-cells and the second binds a specific element on a cancer cell. The T-cell binding arm provides  the activity while the cancer binding arm provides the specificity. By changing the cancer binding arm, the BiTE antibody can be adapted not only from one type of cancer to another, but also from one target to another in the same type of cancer. Therefore, BiTE represents a universal and modular platform for producing bsAbs for an unlimited number of targets.

 As previously stated, bi-specific antibodies are aimed at recruiting immune cells against cancer. Therefore, one of the first decisions to be made concerns the type of immune cells to be recruited. The first attempts to develop bi-specific antibodies, mainly included recruiting T-cells, which are considered the most potent cells of the immune system. T cells play a critical role in the body’s efforts to eliminate malfunctioning cells such as cancer or virally infected cells, making them even more obvious candidates. (more…)

Posted in Monocloncal antibodies, bispecific antibodies, solid tumors | 5 Comments »

Micromet - Biting Cancer (Part I)

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

    

Today it is clear that treating cancer with monoclonal antibodies is one of the greatest advancements in oncology. Just over a decade ago, the approval of Rituxan marked  the birth  of a multi-billion dollar market, as 8 additional antibodies have since joined Rituxan. The market is currently dominated by a specific flavor of antibodies termed “naked” antibodies, which represent a fraction of the large amount of  different antibody flavors. In contrast to naked antibodies, other flavors have yet to reach maturity,  although some of these are making their way steadily to the center stage. All these approaches have one thing in common: They rely on antibodies’ exquisite ability to recognize and bind a target in a very specific manner. One of these approaches, represented by Immunogen (IMGN) and Seattle Genetics (SGEN), deals with Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), which are constructed by linking antibodies to a drug-payload. The antibody serves as a guiding system by guiding the drug to tumors, and releases it inside cancer cells. In addition, there is a lot of activity in developing additional antibody-based therapies that involve linking other types of substances to antibodies. For example, one possibility for boosting an antibody’s potency is linking it to a radioactive molecule like in GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) Bexxar case.  

 

In biotech, just like in other investment fields, it is important to recognize market trends, and identify emerging technologies and concepts. The problem with such cutting-edge technologies is that, regardless of how promising they seem, there is always an unknown period of incubation, in which the  technology migrates from basic research to the industry. If we take the whole antibody industry as an example, it took almost a quarter of a century from the scientific breakthrough that gave rise to monoclonal antibodies, to the approval of Rituxan. In the case of ADCs, several encouraging results may imply that the incubation period is finally over, although drug development is always characterized with a high level of uncertainty. As someone who has been following the antibody market for quite some time now, I assumed that ADCs such as T-DM1 will represent the majority of clinical breakthroughs in the coming years. However, preliminary results from a small clinical trial that were published in ASH three months ago, showed that there is a unique platform which can generate highly potent antibodies, without even linking them to drugs or other effector molecules. In fact, this platform gave rise to one of the most potent antibodies ever tried on human beings -  Micromet’s (MITI) MT103.

    (more…)

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