Oxford Biomedica announces presentation by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals of preclinical efficacy data with antibody-targeted therapy for cancer
Oxford BioMedica, a gene therapy company, announced that the company's licensee Wyeth Pharmaceuticals presented preclinical efficacy data with its 5T4 antibody-targeted therapy for the treatment of solid tumours at the 10th World Congress on Advances in Oncology and 8th International Symposium on Molecular Medicine in Crete, Greece on 13-15 October 2005.
The presentation was made by Erwin Boghaert of Wyeth Research.
It included preclinical data showing that the targeted therapy is cytotoxic against tumour cells expressing the antigen, 5T4; and that the product inhibited tumour growth in in vitro models of various human 5T4-expressing cancers.
In one preclinical model of lung cancer, 100% of mice treated with the 5T4-targeted immunoconjugate survived through an observation period of 150 days, whereas those treated with vehicle or a nonbinding immunoconjugate had a median survival of 40 to 60 days.
In this presentation, the unique characteristics of the 5T4 tumour antigen were highlighted, including its broad expression on most solid tumours throughout the evolution of disease.
Wyeth concluded that the above preclinical evidence supports clinical evaluation of the 5T4-targeted immunoconjugate.
The presentation was titled 'Tumour targeted chemotherapy with calicheamicin immunoconjugates' and was presented during a session on Clinical and Molecular Oncology.
The 10th World Congress on Advances in Oncology and 8th International Symposium on Molecular Medicine is a joint conference organised by the Medical School University of Crete and three leading oncology journals: International Journal of Oncology, Oncology Reports and International Journal of Molecular Medicine.
The 5T4 antibody-targeted cancer therapy is being developed by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which licensed rights to Oxford BioMedica's antibody against the tumour antigen 5T4.
Wyeth has used Oxford BioMedica's agent to develop an antibody-conjugate based on its expertise with the anti-cancer agent calicheamicin.
The license agreement with Wyeth is valued at $24 million in upfront and milestone payments, plus royalties on product sales.
Like Oxford BioMedica's novel cancer immunotherapy, TroVax, the 5T4 antibody-targeted cancer therapy could, in principle, be used to treat a wide range of cancers and could, therefore, command a substantial market.
Oxford BioMedica's Chief Executive, Professor Alan Kingsman said: "The preclinical data generated by Wyeth with this targeted chemotherapy approach using Oxford BioMedica's anti-5T4 antibody are very promising".
"The presentation also highlights the unique profile of our 5T4 tumour antigen as a target for anti-cancer approaches".
"We are delighted by Wyeth's progress and look forward to the initiation of clinical development with the product".
