On January 9, 2017 Aduro Biotech, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADRO), a biopharmaceutical company with three distinct immunotherapy technologies, reported a clinical collaboration with Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada) (Press release, Aduro Biotech, JAN 9, 2017, View Source [SID1234517322]). The companies will investigate the combination of CRS-207, Aduro’s LADD (live, attenuated double-deleted) based immunotherapy, with Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) for the treatment of gastric cancer. Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo! "CRS-207 has demonstrated the ability to induce an anti-tumor immune response in clinical trials in other tumor types that over express the tumor antigen, mesothelin," said Dirk G. Brockstedt, Ph.D., executive vice president of Research and Development at Aduro. "Gastric cancer is an immune-sensitive mesothelin-expressing tumor where PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors have shown some activity. The combination of inducing an immune response through CRS-207, while simultaneously suppressing the cancer’s ability to evade the immune system through a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, has resulted in synergistic anti-tumor activity in pre-clinical studies. We aspire to reproduce this activity in the clinic in patients with gastric cancer."
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The multicenter Phase 1 study, planned to begin in the first half of the year, will enroll patients with metastatic gastric cancer who have failed at least two prior therapies to receive the combination of CRS-207 and pembrolizumab.
About LADD and CRS-207
LADD is Aduro’s proprietary platform of live, attenuated double-deleted Listeria monocytogenes strains that have been engineered to generate a potent innate immune response and to express tumor-associated antigens to induce tumor-specific T cell-mediated immunity.
CRS-207 is one of a family of product candidates based on Aduro’s LADD immunotherapy platform that 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.