News

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 9, 2002 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/--ImmunoGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMGN) today announced financial results for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2002. For the three-month period, the Company reported a net loss of $6.9 million, or $0.17 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $1.8 million, or $0.05 per basic and diluted share after restatement for the retroactive adoption of Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 101, "Revenue Recognition in Financial Statements" (SAB 101), in the same quarter last year. For the nine-month period ended March 31, 2002, the Company reported a net loss of $10.2 million, or $0.26 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $12.0 million, or $0.33 per basic and diluted share, in the same period last year. The net loss for the nine months ended March 31, 2001 reflects the Company's adoption of SAB 101, retroactive to July 1, 2000, which resulted in a cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle charge of $5.7 million, or $0.16 per share.

Research and development expenses increased to $7.2 million in the three months ended March 31, 2002, compared to $3.7 million in the same period in the prior year. In the nine-month period ended March 31, 2002, research and development expense increased to $12.7 million compared to $10.9 million in the nine months ended March 31, 2001. Included in research and development expense for the three- and nine-month periods ended March 31, 2002 are charges of $2.2 million related to valuation allowances the Company established to record inventory and prepaid assets at their estimated net realizable value. Research and development expense for the three-month period ended March 31, 2002 also includes $2.2 million of expenses related to payments made under the Company's development agreements with Avalon, Inc., Genzyme Transgenics Corporation, MorphoSys AG, Raven Biotechnologies, Inc. and other partners. The same period in 2001 includes $1.1 million of expenses related to these development agreements. In the nine months ended March 31, 2002 and 2001, research and development expense includes $4.3 million and $2.8 million, respectively, of expenses related to these development agreements.

Mitchel Sayare, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO, commented, "Our balance sheet remains strong with approximately $144 million in cash and marketable securities, and we have numerous collaboration agreements that provide us with cash. We have historically gained new single-target licenses through negotiations with new partners. The single-target license taken by Millennium in February is the first to come from another source: one of the multi-target agreements we already have in place. ImmunoGen is the partner of choice for companies seeking to increase the cancer-killing power of their antibodies: we now have single-target agreements with Genentech, Boehringer Ingelheim and Millennium as well as multi-target agreements with Genentech, Abgenix and, of course, Millennium."

ImmunoGen Update

In February 2002, ImmunoGen, Inc. announced that Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. had taken an exclusive license for use of ImmunoGen's proprietary maytansinoid Tumor-Activated Prodrug (TAP) technology with Millennium's MLN591 antibody. The MLN591 antibody is directed towards the extracellular domain of Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA), which is expressed by virtually all prostate tumors. Millennium has stated a goal of initiation of clinical trials this year with the resultant product, MLN591DM1. The signing of this license triggered the payment of a licensing fee by Millennium to ImmunoGen.

In March 2001, the companies announced the formation of a collaboration that provides Millennium with access to ImmunoGen's TAP technology and enables Millennium to obtain exclusive product licenses for a restricted number of specific antigen targets during the collaboration. The multi-target agreement provides for an upfront licensing fee, potential milestone payments and royalties on net sales of any resulting products for each such license taken by Millennium.

The lead TAP products developed by ImmunoGen, cantuzumab mertansine (huC242-DM1/SB-408075) and huN901-DM1/BB-10901, are both in clinical trials. Cantuzumab mertansine is partnered with GlaxoSmithKline worldwide; huN901- DM1/BB-10901 is partnered with British Biotech in certain territories. Data on cantuzumab mertansine were recently presented as a poster at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) meeting. The poster included data from a tumor biopsy taken 24 hours after a patient had received cantuzumab mertansine. It noted that the biopsy showed the presence of the C242 antibody at the tumor site and the delivery and internalization of DM1. Data from Phase I studies currently underway with cantuzumab mertansine and huN901-DM1/BB- 10901 are to be presented as posters at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting to be held in Orlando later this month.

The Company had two posters at AACR on huMy9-6-DM1, a wholly-owned ImmunoGen product candidate for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Information presented included new preclinical data that showed the complete tumor regression achieved with My9-6-DM1 was sustained for the full two hundred day follow-up period - well past the point at which tumor re-growth from residual cancer cells would be seen.

About ImmunoGen, Inc.

ImmunoGen, Inc. develops innovative biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer. The Company's TAP technology couples highly potent cytotoxic agents with tumor-targeting antibodies to create effective new treatments for cancer with minimal damage to normal tissue. The Company has partnerships with GlaxoSmithKline, Genentech, British Biotech, Abgenix, Millennium, Boehringer Ingelheim, MorphoSys, Avalon Pharmaceuticals and Raven Biotechnologies. Two TAP products are currently in clinical trials.

This press release includes forward-looking statements based on management's current expectations. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from such expectations include, but are not limited to: the success of the Company's research strategy; the applicability of the discoveries made therein; the difficulties inherent in the development of pharmaceuticals, including uncertainties as to the timing and results of preclinical studies; delayed achievements of milestones; reliance on collaborators; uncertainty as to whether the Company's potential products will succeed in entering human clinical trials and uncertainty as to the results of such trials; uncertainty as to whether adequate reimbursement for these products will exist from the government, private healthcare insurers and third-party payors; the uncertainties as to the extent of future government regulation of the pharmaceutical business; and other factors described in ImmunoGen's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.