Momenta Pharmaceuticals Study Showing M402 Inhibits Tumor Metastasis in Multiple Murine Oncology Models Published in PLoS One

Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MNTA today announced that results from a preclinical study of its novel oncology drug candidate, M402, were published in the on-line edition of the journal PLoS ONE. PLoS One is the online edition of the scientific journal Public Library of Science. M402 is a heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycan mimetic engineered from low molecular weight heparin to have potent activity against multiple factors involved in tumor angiogenesis, progression and metastasis while displaying highly reduced anticoagulant activity. In this study, anti-tumor efficacy was first evaluated in an experimental murine melanoma metastasis model. The data indicated that a single dose of M402 administered prior to tumor inoculation significantly reduced tumor colonization in the lung in a dose-dependent manner, presumably due to inhibiting adhesion of circulating tumor cells to new metastatic sites.