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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Merritt who wrote (64823)	7/19/1999 3:19:00 PM
From: Gary Mohilner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

They've given up on Ricin, they we're large celled and the immune system responded to them limiting dosing possibilities. They are using Maytansanoids which are small celled, with their resurfacing technology these drugs should not evoke a response. They have been tried extensively in Primates and massive doses were required to achieve a toxic reaction, no immunity to the drug ever developed to my understanding. I've also heard that most companies use dogs, which are far cheaper to use, but primates are in the high 90 percentile of duplicating human response, dogs are substantially lower. Immunogen's Phase 1 trials will be done on patients with Pancreatic, Colon and Non Small Cell Lung Cancers which are fairly advanced and probably beyond help with conventional methods. By the end of the Phase 1 trial the protocol should have essentially become the Phase 2 protocol, efficacy may be demonstrated earlier but certainly should be demonstrated by then. Months ago a very knowledgeable SBH source indicated that third world human trials may have been conducted by Smith Klein Beecham, but of course this will never be revealed. We do know they reran the animal trials in-house, so they definitely had the drug available to they. I believe efficacy may be demonstrated this year, but at least until now, SBH has severely limited information. The partnership agreement gives them the right to limit what can be said. Even who will be conducting the Phase 1 trials is still considered secret, although most of us have a good idea who. Gary