To Joe and Eric

[michele u]

Have you guys heard of ALM? I have talking to a scientist at Fox Chase and he is doing some studies on something called radioactive diabodies. It sounds like its something they will inject and it targets the cancer cells for atopsis(death). They said it works best on Her2 pos breast tumors. It aways off from trial, but he was telling me about a Boston Merrimack pharm co. that is releasing a antibody drug , that's called ALM for now, but the name will be changed. I can't find alot of info about it. Maybe thought you guys know where to look that i'm not! Thanks. Oh, and i also asked him about Omnitarg. What i've read about it is that its for her2 neg tumors. He says they are targeting her neg women because it's going to work for both. He says it target her2 like Herceptin does, so it should work better for us. Do you guys know much about Omnitarg? Thanks

Hi Michele,

You may want to also post your question to others including Al and Jeff who seem to have a real good knack of interptreting the info. I found this article from Fox that seems to do a pretty good job of explaining it. Where herceptin targets only her2, ALM will target 2,3 and 4. It is also a smaller molecule which should allow it to reach areas that herceptin doesn't (crossing the brain barrier?). It certainly seems to be worth keeping an eye on. Good find!

Omnitarg really seemed to generate a lot of optomism yet interestingly, I had trouble finding anything new and concrete on it, hopefully someone else will.

Thanks for bringing this stuff up for all of us to potentially benefit from.

Eric

One Drug, Two Targets:

Sorry...forgot the link!

Hey Michele (and all),

It's been hard for me to track information about Omnitarg, first of all because it's confusing about why they are testing it first in her2 negative cancers, and second, because it travels under at least three names (omnitarg, 2C4, and pertuzumab). It you check out the sabcs site from this past year though, you can find a fascinating abstract on combining pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and gefitinib (iressa). Basically, it says that in vitro, this combo completely eradicated a her2+ cancer. I don't even think they were looking for this in the study. Instead, if I"m reading it right, they were seeing if this combo could reverse tamoxifen resistance.

Don't know if this helps...
Jeff

[michele u]

Jeff.
The scientist i talked to said they are trying to market Omnitarg as a her2 neg drug just so they can get more women on it. It does work for her2 better he said, but of course money always comes first, so they will market it as for her2 neg women.

Jeff,

Any idea why, with that kind of success, even in vitro, their doesn't seem to be any studies to take it to the next step? You'd think someone would have jumped on that, unless there's a serious concern about side effects.

Anyone have any info?

Thanks,
Eric

Hi Guys (and girls),
It seems a long way from a petri dish to a pre-clinical study to phase 1 and so-on. I read the one drug, two targets article and noticed it was back in July, 2003. You have to wonder how some of these things just seem to fall off the planet! I am personally wondering why so little attention has been drawn to P13K inhibitors as this seems a very promising therapy.
I think there is a part of the big picture we as consumers, being from the outside looking in, aren't privy to seeing. For example, if I were the CEO of GSK or Genentech, I would be pretty quick to bury the little guy who came up with something big. Call me cynical but health without profit isn't healthy!
Regards,
Al

I agree but the question then becomes, if this is happening how do we best fight it? Anyone????

[michele u]

The ALM drug should be coming sooner then later because the scientist told me that Merrimack pharm in Boston bought the paton for the drug. It will be marketed under a different name, but the way he told me makes me think that it is getting close to coming out

In answer to Eric:
Keep doing what we are doing! Keep all the major issues front row and center and in a public forum so underhanded agendas become more difficult to execute. It will become increasingly difficult to side step and vanish with the on-going vigilance of many on this Board. That's what I love about this Board: a lot of extremely positive energy about some very nasty topics, with the emphasis on "positive".
Regards,
Al