ImmunoGen’s innovative “payload platform” powers potent Kadcyla breast cancer therapy - Business - The Boston Globe
`
`Share
`
`Tweet
`
`E-MAIL
`
`
`
`FACEBOOK
`
`
`
`TWITTER
`
`
`
`GOOGLE LINKEDIN
`
`
`+ VIEW CATEGORIES
`
`
`
`0
`
`Comments
`
` 0
`
`LOG IN
`
`ImmunoGen’s breast cancer therapy took time
`
`By Robert Weisman | Globe Staff
`
`http://www.bostonglobe.com/...tive-payload-platform-powers-potent-kadcyla-breast-cancer-therapy/bB4AyqiGL5ZSaYHw9EIUsK/story.html[1/19/2015 5:10:27 PM]
`
`IMMUNOGEN 2258, pg. 1
`Phigenix v. Immunogen
`IPR2014-00676
`
`

`
`ImmunoGen’s innovative “payload platform” powers potent Kadcyla breast cancer therapy - Business - The Boston Globe
`
`Ravi Chari (top) and John Lambert helped to develop Kadcyla at ImmunoGen.
`
`ESSDRAS M SUAREZ/GLOBE STAFF
`
`Patients and doctors applauded last year when the powerful new breast cancer therapy Kadcyla
`made its market debut, following a long and winding journey to approval for what many view as
`a miracle medicine.
`
`The Genentech division of Swiss drug giant Roche AG got the nod from US and European
`regulators to sell Kadcyla. But the innovative “payload platform” that enables the drug to bind
`to tumors — releasing targeted, cancer-killing toxins that don’t harm surrounding healthy cells
`— was painstakingly developed over three decades by ImmunoGen of Waltham.
`
`“It was 30 years of beavering away,” said chief scientific officer John Lambert, who was
`ImmunoGen’s second employee.
`
`http://www.bostonglobe.com/...tive-payload-platform-powers-potent-kadcyla-breast-cancer-therapy/bB4AyqiGL5ZSaYHw9EIUsK/story.html[1/19/2015 5:10:27 PM]
`
`IMMUNOGEN 2258, pg. 2
`Phigenix v. Immunogen
`IPR2014-00676
`
`

`
`ImmunoGen’s innovative “payload platform” powers potent Kadcyla breast cancer therapy - Business - The Boston Globe
`
`In the early 1980s, the dawn of the biotechnology age, scientists and investors saw the potential
`to exploit a type of protein known as monoclonal antibodies to deliver toxic chemicals directly
`to tumors. ImmunoGen was spun out of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s predecessor
`hospital in Boston to investigate the concept.
`
`After several dead ends, its researchers created a
`“linkable derivative” of maytansine, a compound
`extracted from the bark of an African tree. “It gave us
`a chemical handle,” Lambert recalled. “Now we had
`something we could put on cancer cells and kill
`them.”
`
`But scientists still had to find a way to link that
`derivative to an antibody and a method of getting the
`combined payload into the targeted tumor cells. That
`work would give birth to a new class of drugs,
`complete with their own delivery system. They were
`called antibody-drug conjugates.
`
`It took many more years to overcome the technical
`challenges. Once they were met, Lambert wrote to
`scientists at Genentech, which had won approval for
`its breast cancer drug Herceptin in 1998. By using
`ImmunoGen’s linker and delivery system, he said,
`“we could turn a drug into a superdrug.”
`
`After what Lambert describes as “a four-year dance,”
`Genentech licensed the ImmunoGen technology. Early
`last year, Kadcyla became the first antibody-drug
`conjugate to win full approval from the Food and Drug
`Administration.
`
`ESSDRAS M SUAREZ/GLOBE STAFF
`Bob Lutz, vice president of translational
`research and development at ImmunoGen.
`
`‘Now we had something we
`could put on cancer cells and
`kill them.’
`
`In the process, it positioned the technology platform to
`become a growing force in cancer drug research.
`ImmunoGen itself has nine other experimental drugs — three wholly owned and six in
`partnerships — using the same approach.
`
`“Kadcyla’s approval was a validating event,” said ImmunoGen chief executive Daniel M. Junius.
`“Patients are seeing clear efficacy with better tolerability.”
`
`http://www.bostonglobe.com/...tive-payload-platform-powers-potent-kadcyla-breast-cancer-therapy/bB4AyqiGL5ZSaYHw9EIUsK/story.html[1/19/2015 5:10:27 PM]
`
`IMMUNOGEN 2258, pg. 3
`Phigenix v. Immunogen
`IPR2014-00676
`
`

`
`ImmunoGen’s innovative “payload platform” powers potent Kadcyla breast cancer therapy - Business - The Boston Globe
`
`Lorraine Heidke-McCartin, a Hanson woman diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer in
`2006, was treated with more than a dozen drugs — many causing severe side effects — before
`she began taking the drug candidate that was to become Kadcyla, under an expanded access
`program in late 2010. Her tumors and swollen lymph nodes quickly began to shrink, and since
`the end of 2011, her doctors have seen no sign of the disease.
`
`“It’s been a blessing,” said Heidke-McCartin, who works at a Holbrook church and baby-sits her
`seven grandchildren. “Previously I was fighting a losing battle. By putting the poison right
`where it needs to be and not throughout the body, this drug has made so much difference for
`patients. You don’t lose your hair, you don’t have all the side effects. I can live my life.”
`
`SHARE THIS STORY
`
`
`
`
`
`Explore the Game Changers
`
`+ TECHNOLOGY
`
`+ MEDICINE & MEDICAL
`
`+ DESIGN & TRANSPORTATION
`
`+ FINANCE & NONPROFITS
`
`+ BETA BOSTON
`
`Robert Weisman can be reached at robert.weisman@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeRobW.
`
`E-MAIL
`
`
`
`FACEBOOK
`
`
`
`TWITTER
`
`
`
`GOOGLE LINKEDIN
`
`
` 0 COMMENTS
`
`http://www.bostonglobe.com/...tive-payload-platform-powers-potent-kadcyla-breast-cancer-therapy/bB4AyqiGL5ZSaYHw9EIUsK/story.html[1/19/2015 5:10:27 PM]
`
`IMMUNOGEN 2258, pg. 4
`Phigenix v. Immunogen
`IPR2014-00676