BioWorld International Correspondent
PARIS - MAT BioPharma is about to embark on a Phase III trial of Ferritarg P, a 90 Yttrium radio-labeled rabbit polyclonal antibody for Hodgkin's disease.
The product delivers radioisotopes directly into the tumor, targeting ferritin, a tumor-associated specific antigen of Hodgkin's disease.
MAT BioPharma was granted orphan drug status for Ferritarg P by the European Medicines Agency in 2003, shortly after which it launched a Phase II trial of the product. The Phase III trial will test the product in refractory Hodgkin's disease.
MAT BioPharma's CEO, Jean Kadouche, told BioWorld International that the clinical batches were ready and the remaining formalities soon would be completed. He expects the trial to get under way in July. The Institut Curie in Paris will be acting as principal investigator, and three other centers around France will participate.
MAT BioPharma, which focuses on monoclonal antibodies for hematological pathologies, leukemia and some cancers, has developed a technology platform called CellScreen, which makes it possible to select new antigens and produce banks of antibodies.
In addition to Ferritarg P, the company has four products in preclinical development in leukemia, lymphoma, cancer and anti-angiogenesis therapy. Kadouche said the most advanced of those products, Hyaloxan, which is being developed for acute myeloid leukemia, would enter preclinical development in the fourth quarter.
The other two products are being developed with financial support from French and European research programs and in partnership with other companies. Kadouche said MAT BioPharma had received funding of €3.5 million and €2 million toward their development respectively.
MAT BioPharma also performs fee-for-service activities using its screening platform. Last December, the company entered a research collaboration with the Pierre Fabre Research Institute, the research and development arm of the pharmaceutical company Pierre Fabre Group, of Castre, France, for new monoclonal antibodies for cancer. MAT is developing a bank of monoclonal antibodies and applying its high-throughput screening platform to identify the antibodies that interact with Pierre Fabre targets.
MAT Biotech, which is based at the Genopole, France's national biotechnology park at Evry, was founded in early 2000. It has been funded by seed capital provided by the Genopole and by an equity investment of €2 million from iXCore, the investment vehicle of an anonymous French business angel. Its service activities generated revenues of more than €100,000 last year, and Kadouche said they would comfortably exceed €500,000 in 2006.
Despite that and the research funding it has received, MAT BioPharma is negotiating a €12-million funding round. Kadouche said the investors concerned were American private equity funds, and that closure was expected in the near future.