Aduro biotech and Merck expand collaboration to evaluate combination of CRS-207 with KEYTRUDA
Aduro Biotech announced the expansion of its clinical collaboration with Merck to include an additional Phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate the combination of CRS-207, Aduro’s LADD (live, attenuated double-deleted) with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, for the treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM).
Aduro chief medical officer, Natalie Sacks said that data from their ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial of CRS-207 with standard chemotherapy as frontline treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma have been very encouraging, including disease control in 94 percent of patients treated with the CRS-207/chemotherapy combination. Based on these clinical data, as well as data from preclinical studies that demonstrate synergistic activity of CRS-207 and anti-PD-1 therapy, they look forward to initiating a Phase 2 trial to evaluate the CRS-207/pembrolizumab combination in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma who have failed prior treatment.
The multicenter, single-arm, open-label Phase 2 study is designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of CRS-207 with pembrolizumab in adults with previously treated MPM. The trial is expected to involve 35 patients who have failed one to two prior treatments.
Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that affects the smooth layer of mesothelial cells that surround the chest, lungs, heart and abdomen. Malignant pleural mesothelioma, which affects the thin balloon-shaped lining of the lungs.
LADD is Aduro’s proprietary platform of live, attenuated double-deleted Listeria monocytogenes strains that have been engineered to generate an innate immune response and to express tumor-associated antigens to induce tumor-specific T cell-mediated immunity. CRS-207, the company’s lead LADD product candidate, has been engineered to express the tumor-associated antigen mesothelin, which is over-expressed in many cancers including mesothelioma and pancreatic, non-small cell lung, ovarian, endometrial and gastric cancers.