FX.co ★ LAVA Therapeutics In Deal With Merck For Clinical Trial Collaboration; Stock Surges In Pre-market

LAVA Therapeutics N.V., a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, disclosed on Thursday that they've established a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Inc. The agreement catapults the commencement of a combination arm within an ongoing Phase 1/2a trial for patients diagnosed with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

In early pre-market trading on the Nasdaq, LAVA's stock value shot up by more than 58 percent, reaching a trading price of $2.45.

As part of the agreement, Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy - known as KEYTRUDA or pembrolizumab - will be evaluated hand in hand with LAVA-1207. This Gammabody is engineered specifically to target the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), which induces the potent and selective annihilation of PSMA-positive tumor cells in patients with therapy refractory mCRPC.

Merck has also agreed to provide pembrolizumab for the dose escalation and expansion phases of LAVA's ongoing Phase 1/2a study of LAVA-1207 (NCT05369000). The launch of the combination arm within the study is projected for the first half of 2024.

Enrollment as well as dose escalation will also be maintained in the LAVA-1207 monotherapy and interleukin-2 arms of the study.

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