Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Pfizer and Syndax Announce Collaboration to Evaluate Combination of Avelumab and Entinostat in Ovarian Cancer

News | 01. 04. 2016

Syndax Pharmaceuticals

Darmstadt, Germany, New York, US and Waltham, Mass., US, January 4, 2016 – Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Pfizer and Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a collaboration agreement to evaluate avelumab*, an investigational, fully human anti-PD-L1 IgG1 monoclonal antibody, in combination with Syndax’s entinostat, an investigational oral, small molecule that targets immune regulatory cells (myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory Tcells), in patients with heavily pre-treated, recurrent ovarian cancer. Avelumab is currently under clinical investigation across a broad range of tumor types by the alliance between Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer. This is an exclusive agreement between the alliance and Syndax to study the combination of these two investigational agents in ovarian cancer. Syndax will be responsible for conducting the Phase Ib/II clinical trial in ovarian cancer.