Momenta Pharmaceuticals presents preclinical data of M402 at AACR 2010

Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:MNTA), a biotechnology company specializing in the characterization and engineering of complex mixture drugs, today announced presentation of results from a preclinical study of its novel oncology drug candidate, M402, in a murine pancreatic cancer model. The data showed thatM402, in combination with gemcitabine, significantly prolonged survival and reduced metastasis as compared to groups treated with saline alone or gemcitabine alone. The results were presented by Dr. Martijn Lolkema of the Cancer Research Institute, Cambridge, UK, in a poster titled "M402, a Novel Heparin Sulfate Mimetic, Synergizes with Gemcitabine to Improve Survival and Reduce Metastasis and Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in a Genetically Engineered Mouse Model for Pancreatic Cancer" (abstract #LB-43) on Sunday, April 18, 2010 at the 101^st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), in Washington, D.C.

"Heparan sulphate proteoglycans play a central role in tumor progression and metastasis by presenting growth factors, and regulating heterotypic cell interactions," said Dr. Ganesh Venkataraman, Chief Scientific Officer at Momenta.  "Recently, Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) of cancer cells has been implicated as a significant biological phenomenon behind tumor progression and metastasis.  M402 targets growth factors in such a way that it offers the potential to reduce EMT, resulting in a significant reduction in metastasis and thus, providing a survival benefit in animals.  We believe that leveraging heparan sulfate biology to target heterotypic biology has broad potential for developing novel therapies for a variety of diseases."