Merck and GSK bin agreement on bintrafusp alfa

German life sciences company Merck KGaA (MRK: DE) today announced a mutual decision with UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) to terminate their agreement on bintrafusp alfa, effective September 30, 2021.

The decision is based on the clinical trial data generated to date, most notably the previously reported results from the INTR@PID Lung 037 study, which did not replicate the encouraging data observed in earlier studies. Based on the data generated during the agreement, no milestone payments were made by GSK and no future milestone obligations remain.

The INTR@PID clinical program sought to validate the potential of the novel mechanism of simultaneously blocking TGF-ß and PD-L1, with the ambition to improve outcomes for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers. Given the extent of the clinical program, Merck will deepen its scientific leadership in the field and interrogate the data leveraging the power of advanced analytics. The important insights this program has yielded about the biology of TGF-β will inform the collective understanding of this pathway.