Micromet Presents Update on BiTE Antibody Pipeline and Reviews Key AACR Presentations at R&D Day

Pivotal Trial Expected to Initiate in 2010 for Blinatumomab 


NEW YORK, April 24  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Micromet, Inc. (NASDAQ: MITI), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel, proprietary antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases, today held an R&D Day for investors and financial analysts at The Yale Club of New York City.

The presentations highlighted significant areas of development across Micromet's BiTE antibody platform and included updates on:

  --  BiTE antibody Blinatumomab -- a rapid path to market has been
      identified for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) with a registration
      trial planned to begin in 2010. Dose escalation continues in the study
      of blinatumomab for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, with final results
      expected to be reported at the American Society of Hematology meeting
      in December.

  --  BiTE antibody MT110 -- data presented at this week's annual meeting of
      the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) demonstrated MT110
      can direct T cells to eliminate EpCAM-expressing human colorectal
      cancer stem cells in cell culture and in animal models. EpCAM is a
      target antigen that is highly and frequently expressed on many types
      of solid tumors.  MT110 currently is in a phase 1 dose-escalating
      clinical trial in patients with lung or gastrointestinal cancer.

  --  EGFR BiTE Antibody -- pre-clinical data presented at AACR demonstrated
      that BiTE antibodies developed from the EGFR-specific monoclonal
      antibodies Erbitux(R) (cetuximab) and Vectibix(R) (panitumumab) were
      highly active against KRAS-and BRAF-mutated human colorectal cancer
      cell lines. Recent clinical studies have shown that patients with
      tumor cells harboring mutations in KRAS and BRAF oncogenes do not
      respond to treatment with Erbitux or Vectibix. These patients make up
      more than 40% of colorectal cancer patients.




"Micromet has developed one of the industry's most extensive and exciting antibody pipelines. Our BiTE antibody platform continues to gain validation in the clinic leading to the planned initiation of a pivotal trial for ALL next year," said Micromet President and CEO Christian Itin. "Micromet continues to advance pre-clinical and clinical programs independently and with its partners Bayer Schering, Nycomed, Merck Serono and MedImmune."

An archive of the event's presentations is available at http://www.micromet-inc.com/.

About Micromet

Micromet, Inc. (http://www.micromet-inc.com/) is a biopharmaceutical company with offices in Bethesda, MD and Munich, Germany. The Company is focused on developing novel, proprietary antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases. The Company's novel antibody technology is based on its proprietary BiTE(R) antibody platform, representing a new class of antibodies that specifically activate T cells from the patient's own immune system to eliminate cancer cells or other disease related cells. Four of the Company's antibodies are currently in clinical trials, with the remainder of its product pipeline in preclinical development. The Company's lead program is a BiTE antibody known as blinatumomab, or MT103. It is in a phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and a phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Micromet's second BiTE antibody in clinical development is MT110, which targets the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM). The Company owns all rights to MT110, which is currently in a phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with solid tumors. The Company's third clinical stage antibody is adecatumumab, also known as MT201, a traditional human monoclonal antibody that targets EpCAM-expressing solid tumors. Micromet is developing adecatumumab in collaboration with Merck Serono in a phase 1b clinical trial evaluating adecatumumab in combination with docetaxel for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Micromet licensed a fourth clinical stage antibody, MT293, to TRACON Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MT293 is being developed in a phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with cancer. The Company's preclinical programs include MT203 being developed in collaboration with Nycomed. MT203 is a traditional human antibody neutralizing the activity of granulocyte/macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), which has potential applications in the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, or multiple sclerosis. Micromet has granted an exclusive option to Bayer Schering Pharma AG to license a BiTE antibody against an undisclosed solid tumor target. Additional BiTE antibodies, targeting CEA, CD33, Her2, EGFR and MCSP, respectively, are in different stages of preclinical development.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding the efficacy, safety and intended utilization of blinatumomab, MT110, and its EGFR BiTE antibody. You are urged to consider statements that include the words "ongoing," "may," "will," "believes," "potential," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "intends," or the negative of those words or other similar words to be uncertain and forward-looking. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements include the risk that product candidates that appeared promising in early research, preclinical studies or clinical trials do not demonstrate safety and/or efficacy in subsequent clinical trials, the risk that encouraging results from early research, preclinical studies or clinical trials may not be confirmed upon further analysis of the detailed results of such research, preclinical study or clinical trial, the risk that additional information relating to the safety, efficacy or tolerability of our product candidates may be discovered upon further analysis of preclinical or clinical trial data, the risk that we or our collaborators will not obtain approval to market our product candidates, the risks associated with reliance on outside financing to meet capital requirements, and the risks associated with reliance on collaborators, including Bayer Schering, MedImmune, Merck Serono, TRACON and Nycomed, for the funding or conduct of further development and commercialization activities relating to our product candidates. These factors and others are more fully discussed in Micromet's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008, filed with the SEC on March 16, 2009, as well as other filings by the company with the SEC.

Any forward-looking statements are made pursuant to Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and, as such, speak only as of the date made. Micromet, Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. 

DATASOURCE: Micromet, Inc.



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