On May 16, 2022 Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc., "Neoleukin" (NASDAQ:NLTX), a biopharmaceutical company utilizing sophisticated computational methods to design de novo protein therapeutics, reported treatment of the first patient in a combination arm evaluating the safety and efficacy of Neoleukin’s NL-201 in combination with Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), as part of Neoleukin’s ongoing Phase 1 trial in patients with relapsed or refractory solid tumors (Press release, Neoleukin Therapeutics, MAY 16, 2022, View Source [SID1234614668]).

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"We are pleased to begin the combination arm of our NL-201 trial and evaluate the potential to combine these two agents, which demonstrated encouraging preclinical anti-tumor activity in multiple tumor models," said Priti Patel, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Neoleukin. "Based on the preclinical information, we believe that adding NL-201 to pembrolizumab has the potential to provide increased benefits to patients, and we are excited to learn more through this part of the study."

Up to 132 patients will be enrolled in the combination arm of the study, which is being conducted through a clinical collaboration and supply agreement with Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada). The trial is assessing safety, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, immunogenicity, and antitumor activity.

KEYTRUDA is a registered trademark of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.

About NL-201
NL-201 is a de novo agonist of the IL-2 and IL-15 receptors, designed to expand cancer-fighting CD8 T cells and natural killer (NK) cells without any bias toward cells expressing the alpha receptor subunit (CD25). Previously presented preclinical data has demonstrated the ability of NL-201 to stimulate and expand CD8+ and NK cells at low doses with minimal impact on immunosuppressive regulatory T cells. Furthermore, NL-201 has demonstrated both monotherapy and combination activity across a wide range of preclinical syngeneic tumor models.