Adagene inks third clinical trial collaboration with Merck

Shares of China-headquartered Adagene (Nasdaq: ADAG) were down 3.9% at $17.10 in early trading, despite the company today announcing that it has entered into a third clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK).

The agreement includes an open-label, dose escalation and expansion clinical study of ADG106 in combination with Merck’s blockbuster anti-PD-1 therapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in advanced or metastatic solid and/or hematological malignancies (ADG106-P2001/KEYNOTE-D12). This clinical study builds on the promising monotherapy and combination therapy data from a Phase I trial of ADG106. Engineered using Adagene’s proprietary NEObody platform technology, ADG106 is a fully human, ligand-blocking, agonistic anti-CD137 immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4) monoclonal antibody (MAb), said Adagene.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Merck in a third clinical collaboration that now combines our anti-CD137 agonist, ADG106, with Keytruda,” said Peter Luo, co-founder, chief executive and chairman of Adagene.