LOS ANGELES, June 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- ImaginAb, Inc., in collaboration with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MKSCC), will be presenting initial clinical data with an anti-PSMA recombinant antibody fragment (a “minibody”) derived from the huJ591 monoclonal antibody, in patients with metastatic prostate cancer. The presentation of this initial data coincides with the Company’s preparation to expand the clinical development of this promising imaging agent in the US and internationally.
89Zr-Df-IAB2M is ImaginAb’s lead product candidate under development as a diagnostic imaging agent for use with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for detection of soft tissue and bone lesions in men with high risk prostate cancer. IAB2M is a monoclonal antibody fragment targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). PSMA is a highly promising target in prostate cancer, both because of its ubiquity and its potential as a pharmacodynamic marker of androgen depletion.
“This product has the potential to impact patient care by correctly assessing the extent of disease in several high-risk patient populations so that better clinical decisions can be made,” said Dr. Christian P. Behrenbruch, CEO of ImaginAb. “Our prostate cancer imaging agent has demonstrated excellent sensitivity and specificity for very small lesions because of ImaginAb’s unique targeting and radiochemistry strategy.”
“Technologies to correctly diagnose and stage men with high-risk disease is a major unmet clinical need,” commented Dr. Robert Reiter, Bing Professor of Urology Research at UCLA and co-founder of ImaginAb. “The therapeutic landscape for prostate cancer is changing at a dramatic rate and targeted molecular imaging strategies have the potential to not only impact clinical care, but fundamentally change the way we clinically validate new drugs.”
About 89Zr-Df-IAB2M
89Zr-Df-IAB2M is a radiolabelled antibody fragment (a “minibody”) under development as a diagnostic imaging agent for use with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for detection of soft tissue and bone lesions in metastatic prostate cancer. 89Zr-Df-IAB2M targets prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a transmembrane protein highly expressed in the majority of prostate cancer, both localized and metastatic disease. PSMA has also been shown to be significantly overexpressed in response to androgen depletion, potentially enabling it to be used as a marker of response to anti-androgen therapy in patients with castrate-resistant disease. IAB2M is a hepatically-cleared imaging agent, meaning that there is no renal clearance and no bladder signal to obfuscate small lesions in the prostate bed. Ongoing clinical studies are evaluating the safety of 89Zr-Df-IAB2M tracer and determine its ability to accurately determine the extent of disease in several distinct prostate cancer patient populations with unmet clinical need. This immunoPET tracer has not yet been submitted for approval by the US Food and Drug Administration for clinical use.
About ImaginAb, Inc.
ImaginAb, Inc. is redefining therapeutic management by harnessing the power of antibody technology for in vivo imaging. The company’s proprietary antibody fragment platform yields actionable molecular information to guide treatment decisions in cancer and immunology. ImaginAb also collaborates with select biopharmaceutical partners to design imaging agents as companion diagnostics for therapeutic antibodies. ImaginAb’s technology is positioned to deliver on the promise of precision medicine by improving patient outcomes and reducing the cost of healthcare.
For more information, visit www.imaginab.com
SOURCE ImaginAb, Inc.
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