Symphogen Initiates Anti-MET Clinical Program And Presents Pre-Clinical Anti-MET Data at Annual AACR Meeting April 18th in New Orleans

Symphogen, a private biopharmaceutical company developing recombinant antibody mixtures, announced today dosing of the first patient in its Sym015 program. Sym015 is an investigational mixture of two antibodies, targeting the MET receptor. The Phase 1 dose escalation study in patients with solid tumors will be followed by an expansion cohort in a subset patient population with a pre-identified gene signature. Two sites, START of San Antonio, Texas and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre of Houston, Texas, will conduct the first-in-human study. Kirsten Drejer, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, said, "The initiation of this Phase 1 study represents a significant achievement by Symphogen in moving this promising program forward. It is our second proprietary clinical program, using antibody mixture targeting receptor tyrosine kinase, bringing Symphogen's total number of ongoing clinical studies to four. Importantly, we have retained all rights to the program." Anthony Tolcher, MD, FRCPC, FACP, President and co-founder of START, said, "We are enthusiastic about bringing this unique approach of an antibody mixture into the clinic. MET is a very exciting target for several solid tumors, and may have potential across multiple other tumor types. As such, Symphogen's novel antibody mixture may provide a unique opportunity to improve the life of patients with limited therapeutic options."

Symphogen also announced today that new pre-clinical data will be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in New Orleans. At the poster session on Growth Factor Receptors and Surface Antigens as Therapeutic Targets, Monday April 18, 2016 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM the following two posters will be presented:
A novel synergistic antibody pair targeting non-overlapping epitopes of MET effectively inhibits MET-driven cancer models (Abstract # 1218).
Sym015, a novel antibody mixture targeting non-overlapping epitopes of MET, effectively inhibits growth of MET dependent tumors and overcomes resistance to a single monoclonal antibody (Abstract # 1219).

About START

South Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics (START) directs clinical trials of novel anticancer agents using a high quality and innovative information technology infrastructure to ensure accurate and rapid clinical trials in a setting that emphasizes personalized and compassionate clinical care. START’s head office is located in San Antonio, Texas, in the heart of the South Texas Medical Center.

For additional information, please contact:

Kirsten Drejer
Chief Executive Officer
Phone: + 45 22 10 99 59
E-mail: kd@symphogen.com

Ivan Horak
Chief Scientific and Medical Officer
Phone: + 45 20 55 26 04
E-mail: idh@symphogen.com

Consilium Strategic Communications
Mary-Jane Elliott, Amber Fennell‎, Lindsey Neville
Phone: +44 20 3709 5700
E-mail: symphogen@consilium-comms.com

Annes Associates
Shari Annes
Phone: 650-888-0902
E-mail: sannes@annesassociates.com