In 2006, researchers at Micromet — a small biotech with US headquarters in Bethesda, Md. — started up a human clinical trial on a novel type of antibody to treat cancer. As their CEO, Christian Itin knew of the compound's potential and had ushered it through many developmental growing pains. After the first round of dosing, patients were experiencing the typical symptoms of an immune response, such as chills and fever, which suggested that the antibody was working.
The problem, however, was that the researchers didn't see any of the potent antitumor activity observed during preclinical testing. They grew frustrated, unable to figure out what was wrong. They couldn't rely on lessons learned years ago in classic antibody therapy development because Micromet's antibody, which triggers a patient's own T cells instead of targeting foreign antigens, was so different from what other companies had created.
The challenge was not unlike many ...
