Date: 2011-02-01
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: hu14.18-IL2
Company: Apeiron Biologics (Austria) Merck KGaA, , Merck Serono (Germany)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: licensing
Action mechanism: This recombinant protein (immunocytokine) consists of the hu14.18 monoclonal antibody against the GD2 antigen, expressed on neuroblastoma, melanoma and other malignant tissues, fused to the cytokine interleukin-2 (IL2).
Disease: pediatric neuroblastoma - melanoma
Details: Apeiron Biologics has acquired rights to further develop and commercialize the immunocytokine hu14.18-IL2 from Merck KGaA. This recombinant protein has recently shown preliminary activity in a subset of children suffering from neuroblastoma in a Phase II clinical study (Original Publication: Antitumor Activity of Hu14.18-IL2 in Patients With Relapsed/Refractory Neuroblastoma: A Children\'s Oncology Group (COG) Phase II Study. Suzanne S. Shusterman, Wendy B. London, Stephen D. Gillies, Jacquelyn A. Hank, Stephan D. Voss, Robert C. Seeger, C. Patrick Reynolds, Jennifer Kimball, Mark R. Albertini, Barrett Wagner, Jacek Gan, Jens Eickhoff, Kenneth B. DeSantes, Susan L. Cohn, Toby Hecht, Brian Gadbaw, Ralph A. Reisfeld, John M. Maris, and Paul M. Sondel. Journal of Clinical Oncology (2010) 28: 4969-4975).
Apeiron will continue the clinical development to further investigate the protein’s therapeutic potential for pediatric neuroblastoma and will evaluate strategies to advance it in other cancer indications, e.g. melanoma.
Financial terms: Financial details were not disclosed.
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