BioInvent International has entered into a second clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with MSD.

The two companies will evaluate the combination of one of BioInvent’s anti-TNFR2 antibodies, BI-1808, and MSD’s anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial for patients with lung cancer and ovarian cancer.

“We are very pleased we have reached a second collaboration with MSD that supports the expansion of the clinical trial program with our anti-TNFR2 antibody BI-1808. The Phase 1 component is already enrolling patients who receive BI-1808 as a single agent. We are excited about the potential synergistic activity of BI-1808 in combination with pembrolizumab and this agreement supports the strong interest elicited by our broadening pipeline of anti-cancer antibodies,” says Martin Welschof, CEO of BioInvent.

The Phase 1/2a trial

The Phase 1/2a trial explores the potential of BI-1808 to treat patients with ovarian cancer and non-small cell lung cancer both as a single agent and in combination with KEYTRUDA. A separate cohort in the Phase 2a component will explore the activity of BI-1808 as a single agent in cutaneous T cell lymphoma. It is planned to perform the trial in the U.S., Denmark, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Patient enrollment is already taking place in several European countries.

BI-1808

The anti-TNFR2 antibody BI-1808 is part of BioInvent’s tumor-associated regulatory T cells (Treg)-targeting program, which has emerged from its F.I.R.S.T platform technology that simultaneously identifies and targets high-quality antibodies, generating promising new drug candidates to target the tumor microenvironment. TNFR2 is particularly upregulated on Tregs and has been shown to be important for tumor expansion and survival, representing a new and important target for cancer immunotherapies.

Photo of Martin Welschof: BioInvent