Ohad Hammer

The "Naked" Truth About Antibodies For Cancer Therapy

Thank you for your great replies. IMGN is shaping up to be a true leader in the immunoconjugate field, but no one knows exactly when this market will kick into gear. I must admit, though, that their Trastuzumab-DM1 results have been far from being impressive imho. They haven't published a scientific article about this trial so perhaps it's too early to comment, but the results look as if it was just another naked antibody, instead of a highly toxic compound (cytotoxicity of maytansine is thought to be 200- to 1000-fold higher than that of other tubulin polymerization drugs like taxol, and its deriviatives, like DM1, are even more toxic). it doesn't imply their technology is inferior, it just means that they'll have to try agian and again until they make it. in drug development statisitics are alway against us, so many agents must be evaluated before finding a truly successful one.

I am planning to write an article about IMGN but for now I am working on several other articles, including a SGEN article which (hopefully) will be published next month.

Ohad