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Deal struck for new investigational anti-cancer drug to target leukaemia and lymphoma

Press release - 4 January 2010

Cancer Research UK and Cancer Research Technology (CRT), the charity's development and commercialisation arm, are to undertake a phase I clinical trial of an investigational monoclonal antibody drug from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, called DI-B4.

DI-B4 is the fourth anti-cancer drug to enter Cancer Research UK's Clinical Development Partnerships (CDP) programme - an initiative which allows companies to retain the rights to a treatment whilst enabling the charity to take on its early development work. DI-B4 is the first monoclonal antibody to join the scheme.

DI-B4 binds to the CD19 protein, found on B-cells, and is thought to recruit cells from the immune system to attack the tumour. It is hoped that it may one day help patients with leukaemia and lymphoma who do not respond to existing therapies. Currently, the standard treatment for B-cell lymphoma targets the CD20 protein.

DI-B4 will be one of the first drugs to be manufactured at Cancer Research UK's new state-of-the-art, £20 million Biotherapeutic Development Unit. After pre-clinical work on it has been completed, it will be taken into a phase I trial in around 20-40 patients with advanced B-cell lymphoma.

The trial will be managed by Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office and will take place at up to five hospitals across the UK.

For the full press release, see Cancer Research UK's online press office.