After a third party complaint reached the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) stating that Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU) has committed violations against the conference’s confidentiality policies with its abstract entitled, “Therapy of refractory/relapsed metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) with an anti-Trop-2-SN-38 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), sacituzumab govitecan (IMMU-132): Phase II results”. According to the alleged complainant, Adam Feuerstein of TheStreet, the company has presented the same data it provided in April.
Embargo Violation
Alise Fisher, ASCO Science Communications Department Program Coordinator, stated that the abstract “will no longer be featured” in the press program following the purported confidentiality violation.
Reportedly, David Goldenberg, Immunomedics Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, already presented the same results of the study in an industry networking meeting held earlier this year. Furthermore, Dr. Aditya Bardia, the supposed abstract presenter at the annual ASCO meeting, confirmed that the company did not inform him about the results publishes last April.
Immunomedics’ Argument
ASCO’s confidentiality policy prevents companies from presenting the same data for scheduled meetings at other conferences. In line with this, Immunomedics argued that the scheduled report at the ASCO conference is different than what was presented in a different meeting earlier this year.
Cynthia Sullivan, Immunomedics President and CEO, said that ASCO did not negotiate internally with the company before coming up with the decision. Immunomedics was only informed the night before the scheduled presentation. Sullivan expressed her disappointment in behalf of the company. Sullivan said that Immunomedics would have been excited to present new findings that might help TNBC patients contrary to the alleged embargo confidentiality notice.
The TNBC treatment, IMMU-132, contains a monoclonal antibody that targets the Trop-1 protein on cancer cells. The antibody is connected to the chemotherapy irinotecan that will then kill the cancer cells.
Nearly 20% of breast cancer patients suffer from TNBC, which indicates that the tumors do not have progesterone receptors, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and estrogen receptors that serve as targets for most existing cancer drugs.
