Epratuzumab (LymphoCide) Still Shows Efficacy in NHL

[Guest guest]

We have reported on this drug and a similar response

on December 12, 2001. This is the ASCO release w/

more patients reporting in the study.

This drug may be still known as LymphoCide

Immunomedics Announces Additional Interim Results of

Epratuzumab Combination In Treating Non-Hodgkin's

Lymphoma

MORRIS PLAINS, N.J., May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/

--

Immunomedics, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMMU) today announced at

the 38th annual meeting

of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in

Orlando, Fla., that interim

results of the phase 2 clinical trial testing the

novel cancer therapeutic

antibody, epratuzumab, licensed to Amgen (Nasdaq:

AMGN), in combination with

another antibody, rituximab, appear to show a

beneficial anti-lymphoma effect

without showing an increase in toxicity. This

combination of CD-22 directed

immunotherapy (epratuzumab) and CD-20 directed

immunotherapy (rituximab) is

being evaluated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital's

Weill Cornell Medical

Center for the treatment of relapsed and refractory

non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

(NHL).

A total of 21 patients have been treated in the

trial to date, including

16 indolent (low grade) and 5 diffuse large cell (a

type of aggressive

lymphoma) NHL patients. In the indolent arm of the

study, 63% of patients

(10 out of 16) had an objective response as measured

by standard criteria.

This objective response rate is in the range of that

observed with single-

agent rituximab in other studies targeting a similar

patient population. In

addition, however, 90% of the responders (9 out of 10)

in the indolent patient

population achieved a complete response (CR + CRu), a

rate that is higher,

based on historical data, than the one observed with

rituximab single agent.

Furthermore, all responses are still ongoing with a

follow-up up to 16 months.

" We are pleased to see a consistent pattern of

results as the number of

treated patients increases and as the duration of

responses seen in follow-up

grows, " said lead investigator Dr. Leonard,

medical director, Oncology

Services, and assistant professor of medicine,

Division of Hematology and

Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine at Weill

Cornell Medical College.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is the fifth most common

cancer with about

285,000 people living with the disease in the United

States. According to the

American Cancer Society, in the year 2001, 56,000

people in the United States

were expected to be diagnosed with NHL, and 26,000

people were expected to

die.

" We are encouraged to see that the responses are

durable, " said L.

Sullivan, the Company's president and CEO. " This

combination of monoclonal

antibodies appears to offer the promise of

additive/synergistic targeted

therapy in this patient population, and we plan to

continue exploring the

benefits of the combination in larger clinical

studies, " she 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. Immunomedics

has five therapeutic

products in clinical trials and has two marketed

diagnostic imaging products.

The most advanced therapeutic product candidates are

epratuzumab, which is in

Phase II and Phase III clinical trials for the

treatment of non-Hodgkin's

lymphoma, and labetuzumab, which is in Phase I/II

clinical trials for the

treatment of certain solid tumors.

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