Micromet stock jumps on study results - Washington Business Journal:

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Shares of Bethesda-based Micromet (NASDAQ: MITI) rose $1.05 to $5.6 7 at 10:31 a.m., or 22 percent, after increasing as much as 39 percenrto $6.40 a share in Monday trade. Micromey shares have more than doublesd in the last12 months. On Micromet announced that its antibody blinatumomab showed a high responses rate in a phasd 2 clinical study of acute lymphoblastic leukemia patientzs with minimalresidual disease. Blinatumomavb is a therapeutic antibody that activatesa patient's T cellsz to seek out and destro y cancer cells.
Micromet said that the patients in the triaol were in complete hematological remission following intensewchemotherapy regimens, but retained a detectable level of acutw lymphoblastic leukemia cancer cells in their bone That is the condition called minimapl residual disease. Various studies have confirmexd that patients with minimal residual disease following chemotherap have a significantly worse prognosizs than patients without minimalresidual disease.
In this seconcd phase of clinical trials, Micromety reported that, after four cycles, its treatment eliminated the leukemia cancerr cells to undetectable levels in 13 of 16 or 81 percent of its volunteergroupl -- significantly higher than the 22 percent of 21 patients it was originallty tasked to show. The company now said it’s talking with federal regulatoras on designing the next phase ofclinicalp studies.
The data were presented by the German Multicenter Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Study Group at the 14th Congressd of the European Hematology Associationin Berlin, Micromet is developing blinatumomab on its own aftefr MedImmune, which had inked a research and clinical partnership for this compound in 2003, returnefd the North American rights to the drug back to Micromet this past MedImmune, a division of London-bases AstraZeneca PLC, opted to pursu another cancer antibody based on the same but the larger company will stillo be responsible for supplying Micromet with its clinicak trial batches and ultimate commercial-scale manufacturin g of blinatumomab in return for another chance to reacquir e the North American rights to the drug if its wins regulatory