Immunomedics Wins New Patent for Antibodies Targeting CD19

Immunomedics, Inc. IMMU, a biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on the development of monoclonal antibody-based products for the targeted treatment of cancer, autoimmune and other serious diseases, today announced that it has received notice that its patent application for "Anti-CD19 antibodies," will issue as US patent No. 8,337,840 on December 25, 2012. The allowed claims under the patent cover the use of specific humanized anti-CD19 monoclonal antibodies and fragments thereof for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The antibodies and fragments thereof can be used alone, conjugated to at least one therapeutic agent or in combination with other humanized, chimeric, human or murine monoclonal antibodies, such as antibodies reactive with CD20, CD22, CD74 or HLA-DR. This patent, which provides coverage until 2024, also protects (19)-3s, a novel T-cell redirecting agent made as a DOCK-AND-LOCK™ (DNL™) complex using the Company's patented platform technology. The DNL™ complex recognizes CD19 on B cells and binds to CD3 on T cells. At the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, (19)-3s was reported to bind to T cells and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) cells simultaneously, and induce T-cell-mediated killing of NHL cells at less than 1 picomolar (pM) concentrations in an ex vivo setting, with maximal activity at 10 pM. (For more information, please refer to the Company's press release at www.immunomedics.com/pdfs/news/2012/pr12122012.pdf).