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Amgen And Merck Collaboration To Evaluate Treatment For Advanced Melanoma
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Talimogene laherparepvec is an investigational oncolytic immunotherapy, combined with MK-3475, an investigational anti-PD-1 immunotherapy, in a Phase 1b/2 study of patients with mid- to late-stage melanoma.
"Talimogene laherparepvec has shown encouraging Phase 3 clinical results as a monotherapy in patients with metastatic melanoma," said David D. Chang, M.D., Ph.D., vice president of Global Development atAmgen. "We look forward to working with Merck on this collaboration to evaluate the potential of these two novel immunotherapies to improve clinical outcomes for patients."
"We are pleased to be collaborating with Amgen to study MK-3475 as part of this novel combination regimen," said Dr. Eric Rubin, vice president, clinical development for oncology, Merck Research Laboratories. "Early evaluation of immunotherapeutic combinations is important in accelerating the development of new options for patients with cancer."
The multicenter, open-label clinical trial will be conducted in two parts and is planned to begin in the fall of 2014. Phase 1b is designed to determine the safety and tolerability of talimogene laherparepvec in combination with MK-3475 in patients with previously untreated, unresected, stage IIIB to IVM1a melanoma. The Phase 2 portion will evaluate efficacy, as assessed by the confirmed objective response rate (ORR), with talimogene laherparepvec in combination with MK-3475 versus MK-3475 alone in patients with previously untreated, unresected, stage IIIB to IVM1c melanoma. The study will also evaluate the efficacy of treatment with talimogene laherparepvec in combination with MK-3475 following disease progression on MK-3475 alone.
