'BiTE' Technology Seen as Effective Against CLL

[Guest guest]

[A short series on interesting technology that seems to provide good

responses in CLL.]

http://www.hammerstockblog.com/micromet-biting-cancer-part-i/#more-66

Micromet - Biting Cancer (Part I)

Today it is clear that treating cancer with monoclonal antibodies is

one of the greatest advancements in oncology. Just over a decade ago,

the approval of Rituxan marked the birth of a multi-billion dollar

market, as 8 additional antibodies have since joined Rituxan. The

market is currently dominated by a specific flavor of antibodies

termed “naked†antibodies, which represent a fraction of the large

amount of different antibody flavors.

Micromet is a German-based company that developed a unique

antibody-based platform termed BiTE® (Bispecific T Cell Engagers).

BiTE antibodies are unique in the sense that they combine two

approaches that have been investigated for years without any

meaningful success. I discussed the clinical activity of MT103 in

brief here and intend to do so more thoroughly in the second part of

this article. But first, let’s look at the two approaches which are

represented by BiTE antibodies.