Vaccinex In Clinical Collaboration Deal With Merck To Evaluate Pepinemab And KEYTRUDA

(RTTNews) - Biotechnology company Vaccinex, Inc. (VCNX) announced Thursday that it has entered into a clinical collaboration agreement with Merck & Co. (MRK) (known as MSD outside the US and Canada), through a subsidiary, to evaluate the combination of Vaccinex's investigational SEMA4D inhibitor, pepinemab, and Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), in the treatment of patients with advanced, recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).

The planned clinical collaboration with pepinemab and pembrolizumab will consist of a dose escalation phase followed by an expansion phase that will enroll up to 65 HNSCC patients allocated to different levels of combined positive score (CPS) of PD-L1 expression.

CPS is a biomarker associated with benefit in response to immunotherapy, and a major goal of this study is to determine whether combination therapy can improve response in these populations. Key endpoints of the study include objective response, progression free survival and overall survival.