MEDI first quarter letter to shareholders......
medimmune.com
And cut and paste from the MEDI annual report.......
Despite significant improvements
in the transplantation arena,
life-threatening complications
such as GvHD and rejection
remain serious medical problems.
GvHD is the most common
complication of bone marrow
or stem cell transplantation
when immune cells of the
foreign graft, i.e., the donor
bone marrow, trigger an
immune reaction against the
tissues of the recipient. The
number of allogeneic bone
marrow and stem cell transplants
has increased significantly
over the last few years to over
10,000 annually and GvHD
occurs in approximately 50
percent of them.
BTI-322 has demonstrated
potential clinical benefit in
several Phase 1 / 2 clinical trials
conducted in the U.S. and
Europe. In particular, results of
the most recent trial evaluating
BTI-322 for treatment of GvHD
demonstrated that 55 percent of
patients showed improvement
in the grade of GvHD. These
studies with BTI-322 prompted
the Company's plans to conduct
a Phase 2 study with MEDI-507
to evaluate extended dosing in
patients with GvHD.
MedImmune and collaborator,
BioTransplant, Incorporated,
believe that MEDI-507's ability
to modulate T cell responses
could make it an ideal candidate
for treating certain autoimmune
diseases. Autoimmune diseases
include conditions such as
psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis,
multiple sclerosis and Type 1
diabetes. A Phase 1 clinical
study to evaluate MEDI-507 in
patients with psoriasis recently
began and, based on the results
of that s t u d y, the Company will
consider pursuing other autoim-mune
indications with MEDI-507.
MEDIMMUNE IS EVALUATING SEVERAL CLINICAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR
MEDI-507, INCLUDING ITS POTENTIAL USE IN PREVENTING ORGAN
TRANSPLANT REJECTION, TREATMENT OF GRAFT-VERSUS-HOST DISEASE
(GVHD) AND TREATMENT OF CERTAIN AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS. |
