ImaginAb Announces Publication of Data on First-In-Human Imaging in Patients with Solid Malignancies in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- ImaginAb Inc., a clinical-stage immuno-oncology imaging company, today announces publication of its data in leading peer-reviewed medical radiology publication, The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM).

The paper entitled "First-in-human imaging with ⁸⁹Zr-Df-IAB22M2C anti-CD8 minibody in patients with solid malignancies: preliminary pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, and lesion targetingⁱ" reports the results from a first in-vivo clinical study to assess the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of ImaginAb's lead product, CD8 tracer, ⁸⁹Zr-Df-IAB22M2C, in visualizing the immune system.

The data from the Phase I trial reported in the paper demonstrated ⁸⁹Zr-Df-IAB22M2C was well tolerated with no immediate or delayed side effects observed. In conclusion, the study found ⁸⁹Zr- Df-IAB22M2C imaging to be safe and with favorable kinetics for early imaging. The biodistribution suggested successful targeting of CD8+ T cell-rich tissues. The observed targeting of tumor lesions suggests this may be informative for CD8+ T cell accumulation within tumors.

Lead author of the study, Neeta Pandit-Taskar, MD, Nuclear Medicine Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said: "This novel imaging agent has the potential to non-invasively assess the presence of CD8 T cells in patients' tumors and results of this initial assessment are encouraging. With more research, this technology may ultimately serve a critical role as a biomarker of immunotherapy outcome and inform clinical trials of novel immunotherapies that act mechanistically through the presence of CD8 T cells."

Ian Wilson, CEO of ImaginAb, added: "We are delighted that this paper has been published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, a highly regarded publication in the field of imaging and radiology. Our pioneering clinical trial involving patients at leading cancer therapy centers, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, and Honor Health, are furthering ImaginAb's goal to provide target-specific imaging agents to predict, inform, monitor and enable treatment of cancer disease more effectively."

ImaginAb's lead product, CD8 tracer ⁸⁹Zr-Df-IAB22M2C, is a first in class imaging agent that visualizes the immune system using non-invasive, whole-body in vivo PET imaging of CD8 T cells. Currently, in Phase II multi-center clinical trials at world-renowned imaging and cancer centers in North America, the ⁸⁹Zr-Df-IAB22M2C immunoPET agent detects and visualizes CD8 T cells using ImaginAb's 'minibody' technology. This provides highly-specific, quantitative assessment of the immunological status of individual cancer lesions within a patient, potentially enabling treatment to be tailored quickly and specifically to the needs of that patient.

Publication details: doi: 10.2967/jnumed.119.229781 

For further information, please contact:

ImaginAb
Ian Wilson, CEO
Salli Walker, External Partnership Manager
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +1 310 645 1211

Optimum Strategic Communications
Mary Clark, Supriya Mathur
Email: [email protected] 
Phone: +44 20 3950 9144

About ImaginAb
ImaginAb Inc. is an immuno-oncology imaging company focused on providing actionable insight into patient selection and treatment progress for cancer immunotherapy, enabling precision medicine. ImaginAb engineers antibody fragments called minibodies that maintain the exquisite specificity of full-length antibodies while remaining biologically inert in the body. Used with widely available PET scan technology, these novel minibodies illuminate high-value molecular targets, providing physicians with a whole-body picture of immune activity. ImaginAb is advancing a pipeline of minibodies against oncology and immunology targets, including the CD8 ImmunoPET targeting CD8 T cells. ImaginAb's products have the potential to improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. The Company is backed by top tier venture capital firms and strategic corporate firms including The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Nextech Invest, Adage Capital, The Cycad Group, Merck (MSD) Pharma, Novartis Bioventures and Jim Pallotta of the Raptor Group.

For more information about ImaginAb's pipeline and technology, visit www.imaginab.com.

About CD8 ImmunoPET
CD8 ImmunoPET minibody, ⁸⁹Zr-Df-IAB22M2C, binds CD8 receptor on human T cells and is used for non-invasive PET imaging of CD8 T cells in patients. The Phase 1 dose-escalation study conducted with cancer patients receiving immunotherapy treatments has demonstrated safety, established the effective dose and the optimal PET imaging protocol as well as demonstrated proof of concept for using CD8 ImmunoPET as a clinical tool for the detection and imaging CD8 T cells in patients. Additional studies including ImaginAb's Phase 2 study and studies sponsored by ImaginAb's corporate partners are further establishing the repeat dosing and the utility of CD8 ImmunoPET as pharmacodynamic and predictive marker for immunotherapy.

ⁱ First-in-human imaging with 89Zr-Df-IAB22M2C anti-CD8 minibody in patients with solid malignancies: preliminary pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, and lesion targeting
Neeta Pandit-Taskar, Michael Postow, Matthew Hellmann, James Harding, Christopher Barker, Joseph O'Donoghue, Martha Ziolkowska, Shutian Ruan, Serge Lyashchenko, Frank Tsai, Michael Farwell, Tara Mitchell, Ron Korn, William Le, Jason Lewis, Wolfgang Webe, Deepak Behera, Ian Wilson, Michael Gordon, Anna Wu and Jedd Wolchok

SOURCE ImaginAb, Inc.