BioInvent International AB (OMXS: BINV) announced today that new preclinical data has been presented on its BI-505 programme that demonstrates anti-cancer activity in multiple myeloma and beneficial effect on bone density. The results were presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, San Diego, USA on Sunday 11 December 2011.
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA under the direction of Professor Guido Tricot. Compared to untreated controls, BI-505 treated animals showed a significant reduction (p-value <0.01) of tumour burden induced by primary human multiple myeloma cells as measured by human IgG levels. The active control, bortezomid (Velcade®, Takeda/ Millennium) also showed significant effect (p-value <0.01) over the placebo control.
Svein Mathisen, President and CEO of BioInvent, said: "Current pharmaceutical regimes in multiple myeloma are associated with severe negative side effects. It is our belief that an antibody-based regime would make a meaningful difference in this respect. These preclinical data on the anti-cancer activity of BI-505, well in line with one of the leading cytotoxics, take us one step in that direction."
A second outcome investigated in the study was bone resorption. This is very important to multiple myeloma patients because, as the disease progresses, lysis, or breakdown, of bone causes increasing pain. This lysis is caused by the shift in balance in favour of osteoclasts, the bone cells in charge of skeletal breakdown, over osteoblasts, bone cells promoting build-up. The study demonstrated that both BI-505 and Velcade had a favourable effect on bone mineral density.
In a previous animal model BioInvent has also shown BI-505 to prolong survival compared to Velcade.
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