Immutep in Collaboration, Supply Agreement With Merck KGaA

By Chris Wack

Immutep Limited is in a new collaboration and supply agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, for a Phase I/IIa clinical trial in patients with solid tumors.

The biotechnology company said the trial will evaluate the feasibility, safety and efficacy of Immutep's lead product candidate, eftilagimod alpha, or IMP321, when given in combination with bintrafusp alfa, an investigational bifunctional fusion protein immunotherapy being jointly developed by Merck KGaA and GlaxoSmithKline.

Bintrafusp alfa aims to block two immunosuppressive pathways, TGF-<BETA> and PD-L1, while efti activates antigen presenting cells, via the LAG-3--MHC II pathway.

Immutep said the trial will be conducted by the Institute of Clinical Cancer Research, at Krankenhaus Nordwest in Frankfurt, Germany, as an investigator-initiated trial.

The study will be run as an amendment to the protocol of the ongoing Phase I trial as the fifth arm.

The trial is planned to take place in 2 clinical sites in Germany. Immutep is financially supporting the trial to be run by IKF, and Merck KGaA is financially contributing to the biomarker-related work. The first patient is expected to be enrolled in mid-2021 and the trial is expected to deliver first data in early 2022.

Immutep shares were up 10% to $5.56 in premarket trading.

Write to Chris Wack at chris.wack@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 01, 2021 08:35 ET (12:35 GMT)

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