4D pharma Signs Clinical Trial Collaboration and Supply Agreement with Merck and Pfizer

According to a Feb. 8, 2021 press release, 4D pharma has signed a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck and Pfizer for Bavencio (avelumab)—an immunotherapy approved as a first-line maintenance treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

4D pharma expects to commence clinical trials evaluating the combination of Bavencio—which is co-developed and co-commercialized by Merck and Pfizer—with its single strain live biotherapeutic product, MRx0518 in 2021. The aim of the clinical trial will be to evaluate the combination therapy as a first-line maintenance therapy for patients with local 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 tumors and stages of disease,” said Duncan Peyton, CEO, 4D pharma, in the press release. “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.”