Telix and Merck to commence pan-cancer clinical combination studies

Telix today announced that it has entered into a pan-cancer clinical collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, to conduct combination studies with one of Merck’s investigational proprietary DNA Damage Response Inhibitor (DDRi) molecules in combination with each of Telix’s TLX591 (177Lu-rosopatamab) and TLX250 (177Lu-girentuximab) molecularly-targetted radiation (MTR) therapeutic programmes. This clinical collaboration builds on the success of a strategic research collaboration agreement between the two companies announced in August 2019, according to a statement by Telix.

The statement said that TLX591 and TLX250 are late-stage products in the development for prostate and renal cancer therapy, respectively. Under the terms of the collaboration, and based on encouraging pre-clinical data derived from the initial strategic research collaboration, the two parties have agreed to investigate the synergy of these investigational assets with Merck’s DDRi compound across a wide variety of oncology indications in the clinic.

Speaking in this regard, Dr Christian Behrenbruch, CEO, Telix, said, “This collaboration represents the vanguard of nuclear medicine and oncology, and we are excited by the level of new data and intellectual property already generated, which is highly supportive of clinical translation. Pre-clinical studies provide evidence that the combined effect of Merck’s DDRi compound with Telix’s MTR candidates has potential to significantly impact cancer by improving efficacy and reducing the required radiation dose for tumour reduction and remission, compared to MTR only.”