AstraZeneca’s MedImmune business announces new cancer collaborations

AstraZeneca has announced that its global biologics research and development arm MedImmune has formed a pair of new cancer research collaborations.

The first of these agreements, with Mirati Therapeutics, will be an immuno-oncology-focused research partnership assessing a potential combination therapy for non-small cell lung cancer.

A phase I/II study will be conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of MedImmune's investigational anti-PDL1 immune checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab in combination with mocetinostat, Mirati's investigational spectrum-selective histone deacetylase inhibitor.

Meanwhile, the company has also entered into a license agreement and collaboration with Inovio Pharmaceuticals to acquire exclusive rights to Inovio's INO-3112 immunotherapy, which targets cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18. 

The drug is in phase I/II clinical trials for cervical and head and neck cancers, which works by generating killer T-cell responses that are able to destroy tumours created by the HPV types responsible for more than 70 percent of cervical pre-cancers and cancers.

This comes after MedImmune announced a new collaboration with Celgene in the field of immuno-oncology earlier this year.