Life Sciences

4D pharma announces clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck KGaA

4D pharma plc, a pharmaceutical company leading the development of Live Biotherapeutic products (LBPs), a novel class of drug derived from the microbiome, announced a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer Inc. for BAVENCIO(R) (avelumab), the first and only immunotherapy approved as a first-line maintenance treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. BAVENCIO(R) is co-developed and co-commercialized by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and Pfizer Inc.

Under the collaboration, 4D pharma intends to commence a clinical trial in 2021 to evaluate BAVENCIO in combination with MRx0518 as a first-line maintenance therapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma that has not progressed with first-line platinum-containing chemotherapy.

“With this second clinical trial collaboration for MRx0518 with a leading immune checkpoint inhibitor, 4D is able to evaluate MRx0518 in a new combination and earlier treatment setting. Following the promising data already generated in combination with checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab in refractory patients, and MRx0518 monotherapy data demonstrating single agent immuno-modulation presented last year at SITC, this collaboration allows us to continue to build a broad understanding of the safety and efficacy of MRx0518 across a range of solid tumors and stages of disease,” said Duncan Peyton, Chief Executive Officer, 4D pharma. “The combination of MRx0518 with BAVENCIO has the potential to further enhance the positive clinical outcomes achieved by BAVENCIO for the significant number of patients in this treatment setting.”