MMI losses widen as R&D spend builds; reports solid research progress
Medical Marketing International Group plc (MMG.L), focused on the development of drugs for cancer and infectious diseases, said that planned research and development expenditure increased by 79% to £2.2m resulting in its operating loss rising by 40% to £4.4m in the year ended 31 March 2007.
Executive Chairman David Best (pictured) said: "The past few months have seen a period of strong newsflow for MMI across each of the company's three therapeutic platforms, with each moving forward significantly.
“Although the various projects are at relatively early stages, they all target major breakthroughs in medicine in areas of unmet therapeutic need and each is attracting interest from global pharmaceutical companies. We look forward to reporting further news of our progress during the course of the coming year."
The Cambridge-based pharma said highlights for the year included:
Vaccines
· Lymphoma vaccine Phase I/II clinical trial completed and all endpoints met
· Preliminary results of prostate trial confirm antibody and T-cell responses to immunostimulant; data on response to cancer antigen expected in H2 2007
· Positive early reports from broad spectrum CEA cancer vaccine clinical trial, with three out of four patients responding
· Influenza vaccine construct prepared and in vivo testing underway
Chemotherapy
· Three compounds progressed into pre-clinical programmes: best compound to be selected for potential Clinical Trial Application in H2 2007
· Manufacturing of bulk compounds to cGMP
· Demonstration of compound stability and formulation development
· Advancement of second generation programme
Ribozyme anti-virals
· Key functional proof-of-concept demonstrated, in advanced in vivo model, that ribozyme technology can suppress receptors essential for HIV virus entry
· Lentiviral (LV) delivery mechanism developed to express ribozymes in key target cells
· LV found to be highly efficient in delivering ribozymes in vivo
25th June 2007
