Immunicum AB (ST:IMMUN) has announced that it has signed a collaboration and supply agreement with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany for the checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) Bavencio to be used in combination with ilixadencel in the Phase Ib/II ILIAD study. Bavencio (avelumab) is marketed by Pfizer and Merck KGaA, and approved in the US and EU. The availability of Bavencio at no cost to Immunicum in the ILIAD study potentially opens up European study sites, which will be aided by the recent share issues.
Icing on the cake
Building on a very busy summer, which included stock issues and agreement on the ILIAD study protocol with the FDA, Immunicum has now announced a collaboration and supply agreement with Pfizer and Merck KGaA for the CPI Bavencio (avelumab) to be used in combination with ilixadencel. We had already removed the cost of CPI supply from our model, but the endorsement by Pfizer and Merck KGaA makes expansion of the ILIAD study to European centres (where CPIs are not readily available) possible, and thus recruitment of the Phase II portion could be faster than we had estimated. Bavencio was approved by the FDA in March 2017 for metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), and for urothelial carcinoma in May 2017. Bavencio was approved for metastatic MCC in the EU in September 2017. Before Immunicum’s announcement, the PD-L1 monoclonal antibody was in 18 combination studies in 2017, four of which were immunoncology (I/O) combination studies.
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