WHITEHOUSE STATION (dpa-AFX) - Merck (MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced the initiation of a clinical trial to evaluate the combination of the company's investigational anti-PD-1 immunotherapy, MK-3475, and GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK, GSK.L) orally administered kinase inhibitor, pazopanib, in advanced renal cell carcinoma.
Merck and GlaxoSmithKline entered a collaboration to study MK-3475 with pazopanib and other agents in the GlaxoSmithKline portfolio in the future. This Phase I/II clinical trial is designed to evaluatethe safety and efficacy of a combination of MK-3475 and pazopanibin treatment naïve patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. Further details of the collaboration were not disclosed.
Pazopanib was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma in October 2009 and is marketed under the trade name Votrient. It is now approved in more than 80 countries.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX