Monrovia, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/24/2010 -- Jeremy Barton, VP of Oncology at Biogen Idec will be the keynote presenter on “Targeted Drug Delivery: How Far from the Bulls Eye?” at GTCbio’s Cancer Drugs Research & Development Conference on January 27-28, 2011 in San Diego, CA

Dr. Barton will address why the narrow therapeutic window of most cytotoxic drugs has limited their benefit in the clinic and normal tissue toxicity constrains the dose that can safely be administered. Linkage of a toxin to an antibody whose target may be an internalizing tumor specific antigen has the potential to achieve tumor selectivity relative to normal tissue and thereby improve the efficacy of the drug. The last 20 years have seen dramatic advances in the technologies which are used to construct such antibody drug conjugates (ADC) and there has been recent validation in the clinic of two different linkers (which bind the toxin to the antibody) and for two different toxins. This presentation will summarize the desired properties of an ADC and will show how the technological advances have contributed to the current success of such molecules. Clinical data from the two lead candidates will be presented and future advances and challenges will be discussed.