[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] NKMAX announced on the 14th that it has signed a 'Clinical Trial Collaboration and Supply Agreement' with Merck KGaA and will receive Erbitux free of charge for use in the Korean Phase 1/2a clinical trial.
The Korean Phase 1/2a clinical trial targets non-small cell lung cancer patients who have developed resistance to existing TKI (tyrosine kinase inhibitor) drugs. The trial involves combination therapy with the SuperNK immuno-oncology drug (SNK01), chemotherapy agents (gemcitabine/carboplatin), and Erbitux. After receiving approval from the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in January, the trial recently passed the IRB at Seoul Asan Medical Center and is about to administer the first patient.
The trial is changing from an NKMAX-only clinical trial to a joint clinical trial with Merck. NKMAX will lead the trial, and Merck will provide Erbitux to be administered alongside SuperNK to patients.
Park Sang-woo, CEO of NKMAX, stated, "Our proprietary high-activity NK cell mass expansion technology enhances the expression of cell activation receptors such as CD16, NKG2D, NKp30, and NKp46, resulting in excellent cancer cell killing ability." He added, "We signed this agreement with the expectation that there will be a synergistic therapeutic effect with the SuperNK immuno-oncology drug. Currently, we are conducting only autologous trials, but we plan to start allogenic trials soon."
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