Micromet Appoints Former Roche Oncology Clinical Leader Jan Fagerberg as Chief Medical Officer
September 22 2009 - 7:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
BETHESDA, Md., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Micromet, Inc.
(NASDAQ: MITI), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel,
proprietary antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation
and autoimmune diseases, today announced the appointment of Jan
Fagerberg, M.D., Ph.D., as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical
Officer effective November 1, 2009. Dr. Fagerberg is a
board-certified clinical oncologist and has more than 20 years of
experience in clinical research and development of oncology drugs.
His experience includes several years at F. Hoffmann-La Roche in
positions of increasing responsibility both in the US and in
Switzerland, ultimately serving as the Therapeutic Area Expert
Oncology in Global Drug Development of Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel,
Switzerland. During his tenure at Roche, he was responsible for the
global clinical development of Xeloda, and for the clinical
development programs of Avastin outside the US. He was also
advising Roche's clinical development teams globally on the
development of all compounds for the treatment of gastrointestinal
cancers. Dr. Fagerberg has extensive US and European regulatory
experience, and was successful in obtaining 11 FDA and EMEA
approvals for Xeloda and Avastin. Dr. Fagerberg joins Micromet from
TopoTarget where he was Medical Director responsible for the
pivotal clinical development program for belinostat for the
treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma. "We are very pleased to
have Jan Fagerberg join us as our new Chief Medical Officer," said
Christian Itin, Micromet's Chief Executive Officer. "Jan's
extensive clinical and regulatory experience will be a tremendous
asset as we are preparing pivotal stage clinical trials for
blinatumomab." "I am excited about the opportunity to advance the
development of blinatumomab for the treatment of patients with
hematologic malignancies and of MT110 for the treatment of patients
with solid tumors," commented Dr. Jan Fagerberg, "and I am looking
forward to translating the highly differentiated properties of BiTE
antibodies into new therapies that benefit the lives of cancer
patients." Dr. Fagerberg received his MD degree at the Karolinska
Institute in Stockholm Sweden in 1988. He then received his Ph.D.
for work in clinically applied passive and active immunotherapy
targeting EpCAM in colorectal carcinomas in 1995. From 1995 to 1999
Jan held various clinical positions including Associate Head
Section of Radiotherapy and Chief Physician at the Karolinska
Hospital in Stockholm. Dr. Fagerberg joined Roche in 1999 and over
the following seven years assumed positions of increasing
responsibility. Since 2006 he has been Medical Director at
TopoTarget in Copenhagen, Denmark. About Micromet, Inc. Micromet,
Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel, proprietary
antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune
diseases. Its product development pipeline includes novel
antibodies generated with its proprietary BiTE antibody platform,
as well as conventional monoclonal antibodies. Two of Micromet's
BiTE antibodies and three of its conventional antibodies are
currently in clinical trials. Micromet's preclinical product
pipeline includes several novel BiTE antibodies generated with its
proprietary BiTE antibody platform technology. Micromet's
collaboration partners include Bayer Schering Pharma, Merck Serono,
MedImmune and Nycomed. Forward-Looking Statements This release
contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially
different from historical results or from any future results
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements include statements regarding the
efficacy, safety and intended utilization of Micromet's BiTE
antibody blinatumomab, MT110 and other product candidates, the
conduct, timing and results of future clinical trials, and
expectations of the future expansion of our product pipeline and
collaborations. You are urged to consider statements that include
the words "ongoing," "may," "will," "believes," "potential,"
"expects," "plans," "anticipates," "intends," or the negative of
those words or other similar words to be uncertain and
forward-looking. Factors that may cause actual results to differ
materially from any future results expressed or implied by any
forward-looking statements include the risk that product candidates
that appeared promising in early research, preclinical studies or
clinical trials do not demonstrate safety and/or efficacy in
subsequent clinical trials, the risk that encouraging results from
early research, preclinical studies or clinical trials may not be
confirmed upon further analysis of the detailed results of such
research, preclinical study or clinical trial, the risk that
additional information relating to the safety, efficacy or
tolerability of our product candidates may be discovered upon
further analysis of preclinical or clinical trial data, the risk
that we or our collaborators will not obtain approval to market our
product candidates, the risks associated with reliance on outside
financing to meet capital requirements, and the risks associated
with reliance on collaborators, including Bayer Schering Pharma,
MedImmune, Merck Serono, TRACON and Nycomed, for the funding or
conduct of further development and commercialization activities
relating to our product candidates. These factors and others are
more fully discussed in Micromet's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q
for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2009, filed with the SEC on
August 6, 2009, as well as other filings by the company with the
SEC. DATASOURCE: Micromet, Inc. CONTACT: US Media: Andrea tenBroek
or Chris Stamm, +1-781-684-0770, ; US Investors: Susan Noonan,
+1-212-966-3650, ; European Media: Ludger Wess, +49 (40) 8816 5964,
; European Investors: Ines-Regina Buth, +49 (30) 2363 2768,
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