AACR Meeting: Medarex' MDX-220

- Medarex has presented preclinical data at the American Association ofCancer Researchers' annual meeting in San Diego, which demonstrate the destruction of tumor cell lines caused by its anticancer agent MDX-220. The drug is a bispecific antibody comprising Medarex' proprietary Trigger antibody, plus a second, "humanized" antibody which targets Tag-72. Tag-72 is expressed on a variety of tumors, it says, including lung, ovarian and pancreatic. The Tag-72-targeting antibody was developed by the US National Cancer Institute, which licensed it to Medarex. The company says its plans to file an Investigational New Drug application with the US authorities this year, and hopes to begin clinical trials with the product shortly after.