GSK teams up with Merck for new immunotherapy

(Sharecast News) - GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay Germany's Merck up to €3.7bn (£3.2bn) in order to develop a potential cancer treatment.In a joint development and commercialisation pact for the novel M7824 immunotherapy, which is being targeted at multiple difficult-to-treat cancers, GSK will pay €300m up front and then, as various development milestones are passed for the eight high priority clinical development studies that are expected to be up and running by the end of 2019, up to a further €500m. Finally, if the treatment receives various regulatory approvals and passes other commercial milestones, up to a further €2.9bn could be paid.Of the eight clinical trials ongoing or expected to begin this year are included studies in non-small cell lung and biliary tract cancers.Merck's M7824 is an investigational bifunctional fusion protein immunotherapy that is designed to simultaneously target two immuno-suppressive pathways, transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) trap and an anti-programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1), that are commonly used by cancer cells to evade the immune system.GSK said M7824 has the "potential to offer new ways to fight difficult-to-treat cancers" beyond the established drugs and is also being considered for use in combination with other assets from the pipelines of both companies.Dr Hal Barron, Chief Scientific Officer and President R&D, GSK, said: "Despite recent medical advances, many patients with difficult-to-treat cancers don't currently benefit from immuno-oncology therapies leaving them with limited treatment options. M7824 brings together two different biological functions in a single molecule and we have observed encouraging clinical results in treating certain cancer patients, particularly those people with non-small cell lung cancer. I'm excited by the potential impact this first-in-class immunotherapy could have on the lives of cancer patients."