4D pharma, a pharmaceutical company looking at the development of Live Biotherapeutic products (LBPs), a novel class of drug derived from the microbiome, has announced a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck and Pfizer for BAVENCIO(R) (avelumab), the immunotherapy approved as a first-line maintenance treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. BAVENCIO(R) is co-developed and co-commercialised by Merck and Pfizer.
Under the collaboration, 4D pharma intends to commence a clinical trial in 2021 to evaluate BAVENCIO in combination with MRx0518 – a single strain live biotherapeutic product in development for the treatment of cancer – 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 tumours 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.”
Image credit: Charles Deluvio
