PDS Biotechnology Shares Up 38% on Merck Collaboration
October 03 2019 - 10:39AM
Dow Jones News
By Chris Wack
Shares of PDS Biotechnology Corp. (PDSB) rose 38% after the
company said it was in a clinical collaboration with Merck &
Co. (MRK).
The clinical-stage immuno-oncology company announced a
modification of the clinical trial collaboration agreement with a
subsidiary of Merck to evaluate the combination of PDS's lead
Versamune-based immunotherapy, PDS0101, with Merck's anti-PD-1
therapy, Keytruda in a Phase II clinical trial.
PDS Biotechnology said the planned clinical trial will now
evaluate the efficacy and safety of the combination as a first-line
treatment in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck
cancer and high-risk human papillomavirus-16 infection and is
expected to be initiated in the first quarter of 2020.
The modification to the clinical trial design now allowing
evaluation of PDS0101 in combination with Keytruda as first-line
treatment comes as a result of Merck's recent approval by the FDA
on June 10 for Keytruda as monotherapy in patients whose tumors
express PD-L1 or in combination with platinum and fluorouracil for
the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic or with
unresectable, recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
Write to Chris Wack at chris.wack@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 03, 2019 10:24 ET (14:24 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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