Merck and Alpine collaborate on immuno-oncology research to evaluate ALPN-202 combined with Keytruda

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Recently, clinical-stage immunotherapy company Alpine Immune Sciences has reached a cooperation agreement with Merck to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Alpine’s checkpoint and Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in the treatment of cancer

The new clinical trial cooperation and supply agreement will evaluate the efficacy of Alpine's first conditioned CD28 costimulatory and dual checkpoint inhibitor ALPN-202, and Merck's anti-PD -1 therapy Keytruda in the NEON-2 trial

Alpine's ALPN-202 also shows the ability to overcome T cell suppression and improve the durability of engineered T cell anti-tumor responses

Merck recently announced the European Commission (EC) approval of Keytruda combined with platinum and fluorouracil-based chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of locally advanced unresectable or metastatic esophageal cancer or HER2 whose tumors express PD-L1 (combined with a positive score [CPS] ≥ 10) Adult patients with negative gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma

The phase III KEYNOTE-590 trial showed that the combination therapy significantly improved the survival rate of these patients, which is the basis for KEYTRUDA's EC approval

Alpine not only focuses on cancer, the Seattle-based company has also been committed to lupus research

Alpine stated in the ALPN-101 announcement that the company has also achieved a $45 million pre-exercise development milestone as part of the option and license agreement reached with AbbVie in 2020

Reference source: Alpine and Merck Study Checkpoint, Anti-PD-1 Cancer Combo in Collab Study