Date: 2015-09-24
Type of information: Development agreement
Compound: companion diagnostic for avelumab (MSB0010718C)
Company: Pfizer (USA - NY) Merck KGaA (Germany) - Dako (Denmark), an Agilent Technologies company (USA - CA)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: development commercialisation
Action mechanism: companion diagnostic/monoclonal antibody/immune checkpoint inhibitor. MSB0010718C (avelumab) is a fully human IgG1 monoclonal antibody that binds to the PD-L1 (programmed death-ligand 1) protein, which is present at high levels in many cancer types. By competitively blocking the interaction with PD-1 receptors, it is believed that MSB0010718C thereby restores anti-tumor T-cell responses and inhibits tumor growth. In November 2014, Merck and Pfizer announced a strategic alliance to co-develop and co-commercialize avelumab.
Disease:
Details: * On September 24, 2015, as part of the global strategic alliance between Merck KGaA and Pfizer to jointly develop and commercialize avelumab, an investigational immune checkpoint inhibitor, the companies have announced that they have a collaboration agreement in place with Dako, an Agilent Technologies company, for the development of a potential companion diagnostic test (CDx). The three-party agreement, signed recently, enables Dako, Merck and Pfizer to work to develop the CDx to assess programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) protein expression levels in tumor tissue, and its microenvironment, including tumor-associated immune cells. The investigational CDx is part of the protocols in ongoing clinical trials of avelumab, some of which will be reported at upcoming scientific congresses.
Financial terms: The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
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