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Biotech / Medical : MEDX ... anybody following? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nigel bates who wrote (594)	5/29/2002 12:08:14 PM
From: Icebrg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2240

Nigel, you asked after reading today's PR from Medarex on their fully human CD30 mAb. >>Is that from this ?>> Well, who knows. I would in the first instance guess no, as neither Medac nor bispecificity (?) was mentioned in the PR. On the other hand - looking around a little on the net a Google search brought up the following from the University in Cologne. Possibly the mAb could have its origin somewhere in Germany. Generation and clinical evaluation of a new bispecific molecule for the treatment of patients with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma DFG: Technology Transfer Sector (TFB) 30 (2001 - 2003) After succesful completion of the first TFB project, we are now working on the current DFG funded transfer project with the title “Generation and clinical evaluation of a new bispecific molecule for the treatment of patients with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma”. We have previously shown, that a semi-human bispecific molecule (BSM) consisting of a monoclonal murine anti-CD30 and a human anti-CD64 antibody is able to effectively destroy CD30 positive lymphoma cells in vitro. A Phase I study with the most effective BSM, Ki-4xH22, has been recently completed and showed both an excellent tolerability and a surprisingly good remission rate in patients with therapy-resistant Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Moreover, we have been able to generate several completely human anti-CD30 antibodies with high affinities together with our industry partners medac GmbH and Medarex Inc. In this current project we want to combine these human anti-CD30 antibodies with the previously generated human anti-CD64 antibody H22 to result in a completely human aCD30xaCD64 BSM. We plan to compare the chemically coupled BSM with a respective recombinant aCD30xaCD64 construct within the first year. In the second year we want to evaluate the two best recombinant or chemically coupled BSMs in an animal model. In parallel, the production of the most suited BSM for clinical applications will be prepared together with the company medac. In the third year we will perform clinical Phase I / Phase II studies. This project encompasses intensive comparative preclinical characterization and the selection of the best bispecific immunotherapeutic agent, as well as the clinical evaluation of this construct to pave the way for a big randomized Phase III study in patients with early stage Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. and >>And was the SGEN MAb from their collaboration with MEDX ?>> No, I don't think so. The purpose of the MEDX/SGEN cooperation was that SGEN should provide Medarex with targets. It doesn't make sense to send a mAb to Medarex and then to start their own development project. SGEN do also want to develop a SGN30-based conjugate. But they seems to have problems getting started with their second generation conjugate program. I guess the relation between Medarex and Seattle Genetics might not be the very best at the moment after Medarex went ahead and bought Corixa's conjugate program for 21 mUSD. (A very good price if the program is not very lousy). Ice