Micromet Shows Feasibility of Subcutaneous Delivery of BiTE Antibody in Preclinical Pri...(ulin delivery may become an attractive a...),Health

Reference

1. Schlereth, B. et al. Feasibility of Repeated Subcutaneous Delivery

Establishes a New Route of Administration for Treating Cancer Patients

with EpCAM-specific BiTE Antibody MT110. Annual Meeting of AACR, San

Diego, 2008, Abstract No. 2403.

About BiTE Antibodies

BiTE(R) antibodies are designed to direct the body's cytotoxic, or cell-destroying, T cells against tumor cells, and represent a new therapeutic approach to cancer therapy. BiTE antibodies have been shown to induce an immunological synapse between a T cell and a tumor cell in the same manner as observed during physiological T cell attacks. These cytolytic synapses enable the delivery of cytotoxic proteins from T cells into tumor cells, ultimately inducing a self-destruction process in the tumor cell referred to as apoptosis, or programmed cell death. In the presence of BiTE antibodies, T cells have been demonstrated to serially eliminate tumor cells, which explains the activity of BiTE antibodies at very low concentrations and at very low ratios of T cells to target cells. Through the process of killing cancer cells, T cells proliferate, which leads to an increased number of T cells at the site of attack.

Several antibodies in Micromet's product pipeline are BiTE antibodies and have been generated based on Micromet's proprietary BiTE antibody platform. The most advanced BiTE antibody is MT103 (MEDI-538), targeting CD19, and has provided proof-of-concept in an ongoing phase 1 clinical study in patients with advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. MT110, which is targeting EpCAM (CD326) and is the first BiTE antibody with potential applications in the treatment of solid tumors, has completed preclinical development. Two additional BiTE antibodies, targeting CEA and MCSP, are in preclinical development.

About Micromet, Inc.