PDS Biotechnology Shares Up 38% on Merck Collaboration

By Chris Wack

Shares of PDS Biotechnology Corp. (PDSB) rose 38% after the company said it was in a clinical collaboration with Merck & Co. (MRK).

The clinical-stage immuno-oncology company announced a modification of the clinical trial collaboration agreement with a subsidiary of Merck to evaluate the combination of PDS's lead Versamune-based immunotherapy, PDS0101, with Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, Keytruda in a Phase II clinical trial.

PDS Biotechnology said the planned clinical trial will now evaluate the efficacy and safety of the combination as a first-line treatment in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer and high-risk human papillomavirus-16 infection and is expected to be initiated in the first quarter of 2020.

The modification to the clinical trial design now allowing evaluation of PDS0101 in combination with Keytruda as first-line treatment comes as a result of Merck's recent approval by the FDA on June 10 for Keytruda as monotherapy in patients whose tumors express PD-L1 or in combination with platinum and fluorouracil for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic or with unresectable, recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Write to Chris Wack at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 03, 2019 10:24 ET (14:24 GMT)

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