6 February 2018 - - Daejeon, South Korea-based clinical-stage biotech company PharmAbcine Inc. has entered into a collaborative agreement with Kenilworth, New Jersey-based global healthcare solutions provider Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, through a subsidiary, to evaluate PharmAbcine's anti-VEGFR2 mAb, TTAC-0001, in combination with Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, Keytruda (pembrolizumab), in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (rGBM) and metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, the company said.
PharmAbcine's lead candidate TTAC-0001, an investigational therapy, is a highly selective and potent anti-VEGFR2 (KDR/flk-1) mAb in clinical development for rGBM indications.
VEGFR2 is over-expressed in most malignant tumors, such as gastric, liver, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), ovarian, brain, colorectal, and breast cancers and this signaling pathway is a key regulator for tumor angiogenesis.
Increased understanding of the role of VEGF/VEGFR2 in the tumor microenvironment supports the rationale for evaluating TTAC-0001 in combination with Keytruda.
Under the terms of the collaboration, PharmAbcine will conduct international Phase I/II studies to evaluate the potential clinical synergy of combining TTAC-0001 with Keytruda.
PharmAbcine develops fully human therapeutic antibody and next generation multispecific antibody therapeutics based on in-house developed platform for the treatment of human diseases, such as cancer and inflammatory diseases.