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To: Jenna who wrote (25404)	2/22/1999 12:07:00 PM
From: Logistics	Respond to of 120523

IMMU - Big Cancer News. JUST OUT:: Monday February 22, 11:27 am Eastern Time Company Press Release SOURCE: Immunomedics, Inc. Immunomedics Expands Cancer Therapy Focus in Research Agreement With National Cancer Institute - Company and National Cancer Institute to Study New Class of Cancer Drugs - MORRIS PLAINS, N.J., Feb. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Immunomedics, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMMU - news) today announced that it has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, MD, covering the development and use of antibody-conjugated recombinant cytotoxic ribonucleases as a potential new class of anticancer agents. The anticipated drugs will be directed against both blood cancers and solid tumors of the lung, stomach, bladder, breast, ovary, uterus and prostate. The potential new cancer therapeutics being developed will employ Immunomedics' proprietary, internalizing, antibodies, including humanized antibodies, and certain peptides, which target these different cancers. The National Cancer Institute will contribute special recombinant toxins that destroy the cancer cell's ribonucleic acid (RNA), which is essential for cell division. Under the terms of the agreement, Immunomedics will collaborate in these studies with NCI's research team headed by Susanna Rybak, Ph.D., and will retain commercial rights to the products. According to Dr. Hans J. Hansen, Vice President of Research and Development at Immunomedics, ''Although it has not been tested in humans yet, we have shown in an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Rybak that we can achieve a targeted delivery of a tumor-cell-specific immunotoxin, ribonuclease, without the toxicity usually associated with other toxins, and that excellent killing of human lymphoma cells in cell culture and in mice can result when the toxin is attached to our LL2 antibody.'' ''We plan to also adapt this technology to another one of our internalizing antibodies that target some of the major solid tumors affecting our population,'' Dr. Hansen added. Immunomedics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacture and commercialization of diagnostic imaging and therapeutic products for the detection and treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. Integral to these products are highly specific monoclonal antibodies and antibody fragments designed to deliver radioisotopes and chemotherapeutic agents to tumors and sites of infection. The Company's first product, CEA-Scan® for the detection of colorectal cancer, is being marketed in the United States and Europe (approved in Canada). The Company's second diagnostic imaging product, LeukoScan®, is being marketed in Europe for the diagnosis of osteomyelitis (bone infection). This product is presently under regulatory review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Immunomedics also has several other diagnostic imaging products and two therapeutic products in clinical trials. This release, in addition to historical information, contains certain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may involve significant risks and uncertainties and actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied herein. Factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to, new product development (including clinical trials outcome and regulatory requirement/actions), competitive risks to marketed products and availability of financing and other sources of capital as well as those discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 1998. Company Contact: Cynthia Sullivan, Executive Director, 973-605-8200, ext. 109. Visit the Company's web site at immunomedics.com.