eFFECTOR Therapeutics to collaborates with Pfizer and Merck KGaA

Privately-held US biotech firm eFFECTOR Therapeutics has entered into a clinical collaboration and supply agreement with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRK: DE), to evaluate the combination of two immuno-oncology agents in patients with microsatellite stable colorectal cancer (CRC).

The companies plan to initiate a Phase II open-label, randomized, non-comparative study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of eFFECTOR's investigational small-molecule MNK1/2 inhibitor, eFT508, in combination with avelumab in microsatellite stable relapsed or refractory CRC patients. Avelumab is currently under clinical evaluation across a broad range of tumor types by the global strategic alliance between Merck KGaA, which in the US and Canada operates as EMD Serono, and Pfizer. The study will also include a monotherapy arm investigating eFT508 alone. Patients will be randomized 2:1 between the combination arm and the monotherapy arm.

"We believe eFT508, our lead program, is a promising new immuno-oncology drug candidate that could significantly improve patient response in combination with checkpoint inhibitors," said Steve Worland, president and chief executive of eFFECTOR.