Data Presented at Meeting of European Hematology Association Confirms High Response Rate and Durability of Remissions
BERLIN, June 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Micromet, Inc. (Nasdaq: MITI), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel, proprietary antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases, last week presented an update from an ongoing clinical study of the BiTE(R) antibody blinatumomab (MT103) for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) at the 14th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA), held June 4 to 7 in Berlin, Germany. Blinatumomab is a novel therapeutic antibody that activates a patient's T cells to seek out and destroy cancer cells.
The poster presentation gave an update of an ongoing phase 1 trial of blinatumomab in relapsed NHL patients including a follow-up on response duration as well as pharmacodynamic activity(1). A dose-dependent clinical activity has been observed in these patients including partial and complete responses following treatment with single agent blinatumomab(2). The data show that 11 out of 12 patients having received a dose of 0.06 mg/m(2) per day during the first treatment cycle have responded according to standard Cheson criteria. Remissions appear to be durable without further treatment with a median relapse free interval of 13 months for the seven patients in the 0.06 mg/m(2) per day dose cohort reported at ASH in 2008(2). The most common adverse events (AEs) included lymphopenia, pyrexia, and leukopenia. The vast majority of AEs occurred early during treatment and improved or resolved during treatment. Permanent treatment discontinuation due to AEs resulted from infections, liver enzyme increases and fully reversible central nervous system events.
'The observation of high response rate and durable objective responses indicates the potential that blinatumomab and BiTE antibodies, in general, may have in fighting cancer,' said Micromet's Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Carsten Reinhardt, M.D.
(1) Klinger, M. et al. (2009). Pharmacodynamic analyses of peripheral blood from relapsed B-NHL patients treated with anti-CD19/-CD3 bispecific BiTE(R) antibody blinatumomab. 14th Congress of EHA, abstract number 430
(2) Bargou, R. et al. (2008). Sustained Response Duration Seen after Treatment with Single Agent Blinatumomab (MT103/MEDI-538) in the Ongoing Phase I Study MT103-104 in Patients with Relapsed NHL. ASH 2008, abstract number 267
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