Micromet Promotes Carsten Reinhardt to Chief Medical Officer
Bethesda, Maryland (ots/PRNewswire)
- Company Expects Four Antibodies in Clinical Development by End of 2007 -
Micromet, Inc. (Nasdaq: MITI), a biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development of novel, proprietary antibody-based products for the treatment of cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, announced today the promotion of Carsten Reinhardt, M.D. from Senior Vice President of Clinical Development to Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Reinhardt joined Micromet in 2005 from Roche (Basel, Switzerland) where he was the International Medical Leader of the Herceptin(R) program. As Chief Medical Officer, he will continue to be responsible for the overall clinical development of Micromet's product candidates.
Micromet expects to initiate clinical trials for one additional antibody program by the end of the year, bringing the total number of antibodies in clinical development to four. In addition, up to four preclinical antibodies are anticipated to reach the clinical stage during 2008 and 2009. Building on its clinically validated next generation antibody technology platform known as BiTE(R) molecules, Micromet will continue to broaden its pipeline with a focus on cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
"Carsten has built an outstanding clinical development group at Micromet, and has demonstrated the leadership and expertise we need in order to take advantage of the opportunities arising from our strong development pipeline," said Christian Itin, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Micromet. "Thanks to Carsten and his team, we are well positioned to expand our clinical stage pipeline based on our BiTE antibody technology over the next two years, while continuing to advance our antibody product candidates that are currently in clinical trials."
About Micromet, Inc.
Micromet, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development of novel, proprietary antibody-based products for cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases. Three product candidates are currently in clinical trials. MT103/MEDI-538, which is the first product candidate based on Micromet's novel BiTE(R) antibody product development platform, is being evaluated in a phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The BiTE product development platform is based on a unique, antibody-based format that leverages the cytotoxic potential of T cells, widely recognized as the most powerful 'killer cells' of the human immune system. Adecatumumab (MT201), a recombinant human monoclonal antibody which targets EpCAM expressing tumors, has completed two phase 2a clinical trials, one in patients with breast cancer, which has shown activity in patients with high EpCAM expression, and the other in patients with prostate cancer. In addition, a phase 1b trial evaluating the safety and tolerability of MT201 in combination with docetaxel is currently ongoing in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Micromet has established collaborations with MedImmune, Inc. for MT103/MEDI-538 and Merck Serono for adecatumumab (MT201). Our third clinical stage product candidate is D93, also known as TRC093, a first-in-class humanized monoclonal antibody that inhibits angiogenesis and tumor cell growth by binding cleaved collagen. D93/TRC093 is being developed by TRACON Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in oncology and Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) pursuant to a license agreement under which we have granted TRACON worldwide rights to develop and commercialize D93/TRC093. In addition, Micromet has established a collaboration with Nycomed for the development and commercialization of MT203, Micromet's human antibody neutralizing the activity of GM-CSF, which may be important in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements include the risk that product candidates that appeared promising in early research, preclinical studies or clinical trials do not demonstrate safety and/or efficacy in subsequent clinical trials, the risk that encouraging results from early research, preclinical studies or clinical trials may not be confirmed upon further analysis of the detailed results of such research, preclinical study or clinical trial, the risk that additional information relating to the safety, efficacy or tolerability of our product candidates may be discovered upon further analysis of preclinical or clinical trial data, the risk that we or our collaboration partners will not obtain approval to market our product candidates, the risks associated with reliance on outside financing to meet capital requirements, and the risks associated with reliance on collaboration partners, including MedImmune, Merck Serono and Nycomed, for the funding or conduct of further development and commercialization activities relating to our product candidates. You are urged to consider statements that include the words "ongoing", "may", "will", "would", "could", "should", "believes", "estimates", "projects", "potential", "expects", "suggests", "plans", "anticipates", "intends", "continues", "forecast", "designed", "goal", or the negative of those words or other comparable words to be uncertain and forward-looking. These factors and others are more fully discussed in our periodic reports and other filings with the SEC.
Any forward-looking statements are made pursuant to Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and, as such, speak only as of the date made. Micromet, Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Web site: http://www.micromet-inc.com
Contact:
Media: Chris Schnittker, SVP & CFO of Micromet, Inc.,
+1-240-752-1421, christopher.schnittker@micromet-inc.com, or Pat
Garrison, +1-917-322-2567, pgarrison@rxir.com; Investors: Susan
Noonan, +1-212-966-3650, susan@sanoonan.com, both for Micromet, Inc.