MORRIS PLAINS, N.J., Nov. 18, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immunomedics, Inc. (Nasdaq:IMMU) confirmed that venBio Select Advisor LLC has submitted a notice of nomination of four director candidates to stand for election to the Immunomedics Board of Directors at the Company’s 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on December 14, 2016. The Company issued the following statement:
The Immunomedics Board of Directors and management team are committed to acting in the best interests of the Company and all stockholders and regularly seeks qualified candidates for the Board. To that end, while venBio did not engage in discussions with the Company prior to nominating a majority slate for election to the Board just four weeks prior to the upcoming 2016 Annual Meeting, Immunomedics’ Governance and Nominating Committee will consider venBio’s director candidates and respond in due course.
Immunomedics has achieved a number of important milestones in 2016, including delivering positive Phase 2 clinical trial results of IMMU-132 in patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which have been submitted for publication; achieving our timetable for the manufacturing of clinical materials for the Phase 3 confirmatory trial in TNBC; and nearing completion of enrolling 100 patients into our ongoing open-label Phase 2 trial by year-end 2016. The Company has also retained Greenhill & Co. to pursue licensing and other strategic activities with regard to preclinical and clinical pipeline products as well as platform technologies.
The Company is at a pivotal point in its growth trajectory as it prepares to submit an accelerated approval application to the FDA for IMMU-132 in mid-2017 and believes disruption in its strategy at this time could destroy value and potentially disrupt the Company’s clinical trial activities for late-stage cancer patients. Additionally, as previously announced, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in December 2016, the Company will premiere a new antibody-drug conjugate known as IMMU-140 and the Company anticipates delivering interim results for IMMU-132 at a symposium on genitourinary cancers to be held in early 2017.
Immunomedics is well-positioned to execute on the Company’s strategy, drive innovation in the targeted treatment of cancer, autoimmune disorders and other serious diseases and enhance stockholder value, and perhaps most importantly help patients suffering from cancer.
The Company presented the Board’s recommendation regarding director nominees in its definitive proxy statement and other materials filed with the SEC on November 2, 2016, and mailed to stockholders.
DLA Piper is serving as legal advisor and Greenhill & Co. is serving as financial advisor to Immunomedics.
About Immunomedics
Immunomedics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing monoclonal antibody based products for the targeted treatment of cancer, autoimmune disorders and other serious diseases. Immunomedics’ advanced proprietary technologies allow the Company to create humanized antibodies that can be used either alone in unlabeled or “naked” form, or conjugated with radioactive isotopes, chemotherapeutics, cytokines or toxins. Using these technologies, Immunomedics has built a pipeline of eight clinical-stage product candidates. Immunomedics’ portfolio of investigational products includes antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) that are designed to deliver a specific payload of a chemotherapeutic directly to the tumor while reducing overall toxic effects that are usually found with conventional administration of these chemotherapeutic agents. Immunomedics’ most advanced ADCs are sacituzumab govitecan (IMMU-132) and labetuzumab govitecan (IMMU-130), which are in Phase 2 trials for a number of solid tumors and metastatic colorectal cancer, respectively. IMMU-132 has received Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA for the treatment of patients with triple-negative breast cancer who have failed at least two prior therapies for metastatic disease. Immunomedics has a research collaboration with Bayer to study epratuzumab as a thorium-227-labeled antibody. Immunomedics has other ongoing collaborations in oncology with independent cancer study groups. The IntreALL Inter-European study group is conducting a large, randomized Phase 3 trial combining epratuzumab with chemotherapy in children with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia at clinical sites in Australia, Europe, and Israel. Immunomedics also has a number of other product candidates that target solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, as well as other diseases, in various stages of clinical and preclinical development. These include combination therapies involving its antibody-drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies targeting cancers and infectious diseases as T-cell redirecting immunotherapies, as well as bispecific antibodies for next-generation cancer and autoimmune disease therapies, created using its patented DOCK-AND-LOCK® protein conjugation technology. The Company believes that its portfolio of intellectual property, which includes approximately 299 active patents in the United States and more than 400 foreign patents, protects its product candidates and technologies. For additional information on the Company, please visit its website at www.immunomedics.com.
