Lilly and Merck Sharp and Dohme to assess lung cancer therapy

Lilly is expanding its immuno-oncology collaboration with Merck Sharp and Dohme with the launch of a new combination lung cancer therapy trial.

The companies will seek to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a combination of Lilly's Alimta and Merck's Keytruda in a pivotal phase III study in first-line non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

To be sponsored by Merck, the trial will be open to patients with NSCLC in the first-line setting, regardless of PD-L1 status. It will aim to build on the encouraging results seen in a phase I study of this therapeutic approach.

Alimta is already used in combination with platinum-based therapies in this setting, making it an ideal candidate for combination studies with immunotherapy treatments, according to Lilly.

Dr Richard Gaynor, senior vice-president for product development and medical affairs at Lilly Oncology, said: "The extension of our immuno-oncology collaboration with Merck reinforces our combination-focused strategy, which we believe has the potential to help this patient population where there is a significant unmet need."

This comes after the firm announced a new immuno-oncology partnership with ImaginAb last month.