Biopharmaceutical company IO Biotech revealed on Friday the launch of a collaborative agreement to conduct an international Phase 1/2 study to evaluate the combination of IO102 with Merck & Co Inc's anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA, for the treatment of NSCLC, the most common type of lung cancer.

The partnership will focus on the clinical evaluation of IO102 with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

According to IO Biotech, IO102 is an IDO-derived immune modulating therapy with dual mode of action killing both cancer and immune-suppressive cells. Its IDO-derived immune modulating therapies have shown a favorable safety profile and signs of promising anti-tumor activity in a first in man trial of heavily pre-treated patients with NSCLC.

In conjunction with the agreement, the partnership will start an open-label, randomized, phase 1/2 trial Investigating the safety and efficacy of IO102 in combination with Pembrolizumab, with or without chemotherapy, as first-line treatment for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. The biomarker studies will be conducted in parallel with the trial.

Under the terms of the partnership, the clinical trials will be sponsored by IO Biotech, while MSD will provide the trial with KEYTRUDA. The rights to the study results will be shared. IO Biotech will maintain global commercial rights to IO102.