ImmunoGen says TAP compound is stable while circulating in bloodstream

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., April 3 - ImmunoGen, Inc. announced that extensive data on the company's antibody-maytansinoid, or tumor-activated prodrug (TAP), technology will be reported at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting being held in Washington, D.C. this week.

In addition, preclinical findings will be reported for several compounds in development by ImmunoGen and by the company's collaborator, the Sanofi-Aventis group.

"In the past few years, we've significantly increased our ability to tailor the design of antibody-maytansinoid compounds for different antibodies and targets to maximize the therapeutic window achieved, which is reflected in TAP compounds now in clinical testing," executive vice president Walter Blattler said in a news release.

"The findings to be presented demonstrate the careful assessment of alternative product designs that is conducted by ImmunoGen and our collaborators in the development of each TAP compound. They also illustrate the research we're doing to enable the successful application of our technology to every type of cancer."

Data on ImmunoGen's technology to be reported at AACR include:

• Findings that further confirm that a TAP compound is stable while circulating in the bloodstream (abstract #1181);

• Results that demonstrate that, upon entering a cancer cell, a TAP compound is rapidly activated - causing cell-cycle arrest - and this activation involves lysosomal processing (abstract #1175);

• Findings that show that alternative TAP compound designs result in different active agents being formed inside a cancer cell (abstract #1994);

• Data that demonstrate that alternative TAP compound designs lead to important differences in antitumor activity (abstract #3727). For example, the design of a TAP compound has been found to impact its activity against tumors with heterogeneous expression of the target antigen - tumors that contain cancer cells that are expressing the target antigen and also cancer cells that are not.

Based in Cambridge, Mass., ImmunoGen develops targeted anticancer biopharmaceuticals.

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