Immunomedics Announces Preclinical Therapy Results of SN-38 Immunoconjugate for Colorec...( SAN FRANCISCO Jan. 20 /- Immunomedic...),Health

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Immunomedics, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMMU), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer and other serious diseases, today announced that results presented at the 2009 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium showed that labetuzumab-SN-38, an antibody-drug conjugate, selectively delivers SN-38 to human colon carcinoma in animal models as an effective new therapy.

SN-38 is the active metabolite of irinotecan, a chemotherapeutic agent approved by the FDA for the treatment of colorectal, lung, and other cancers. Due to its toxicity and poor solubility, SN-38 cannot be administered systemically to cancer patients. The Company has previously reported that by conjugating SN-38 to antibodies, the powerful cancer drug can be delivered selectively to tumors, thereby increasing the amount reaching the tumors and minimizing damage to normal tissues and organs. (Please refer to http://www.immunomedics.com/news_pdf/2008_PDF/PR03202008.pdf).

In this study, the therapeutic efficacy of SN-38 conjugated to labetuzumab was evaluated in two animal models of human colon cancer. Labetuzumab is a non-internalizing humanized antibody that binds to the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEACAM5) expressed by many solid cancers. The Company has conducted clinical trials with the naked and radiolabeled antibody in patients with colorectal, breast and pancreas cancers.

In a lung metastatic model of colon carcinoma, therapy with labetuzumab-SN-38 conjugate increased median survival time (MST) 1.9- to 3.4-fold compared to various controls, with 20% of animals alive at the end of the study. In another colon cancer model, MST for the immunoconjugate treatment group in
'/>"/>