BRIEF—BioLineRx expands I-O deal with pharma giant

Israeli biotech firm BioLineRx saw its shares rise 5.55% to 336.90 shekels in morning trading after it announced today the expansion of its immuno-oncology collaboration with Merck & Co.

The deal is for the support of a Phase IIa program investigating BioLineRx' BL-8040 in combination with Merck’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab), an anti-PD-1 therapy, in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Under the expansion, a triple combination arm investigating the safety, tolerability and efficacy of BL-8040, Keytruda and chemotherapy will be added to the ongoing COMBAT/KEYNOTE-202 study.

The triple combination arm will focus on second-line pancreatic cancer patients. Regulatory submissions required to conduct the additional arm of the study have been made and the trial is planned to be initiated in the fourth quarter of 2018.

"We are very excited to report the expansion of our immuno-oncology collaboration with Merck and the inclusion of an additional arm in the COMBAT/KEYNOTE-202 study. The decision to investigate the combination of BL-8040 and Keytruda, together with chemotherapy, stems from the encouraging results we have seen in the trial," stated Philip Serlin, chief executive of BioLineRx.

"These results continue to demonstrate the safety and tolerability of BL-8040, as well as validate its mechanism of action, namely that BL-8040 mobilizes immune cells into the peripheral blood, promotes T-cell infiltration into tumors, and has an effect on immuno-suppressive cells," he added.