Israeli Startup Tests Cancer Treatment With Pharma Giant

An Israeli startup is collaborating with pharma giant Merck to create a new cancer treatment. 

Nectin Therapeutics has already developed a clinical-stage treatment that blocks PVR, a protein highly synthesized by cancer cells, which prevents immunotherapies from being effective. 

The company will evaluate the efficacy of its treatment in combination with a cancer therapy developed by pharma giant Merck (known as MSD in Europe). 

Nectin hopes the two treatments together will fight locally advanced and metastatic solid tumors – or cancer cells that have broken away from their original tumor and formed a new one in other organs.

The combination will be tested on 90 cancer patients, and the dose will, in time, be increased to assess its safety and tolerability. 

PVR is overly produced in many kinds of cancer, including lung, liver, ovarian, breast, and uterine cancers. High PVR expression is associated with a poor prognosis and resistance to the PD-1 and PD-L1 immunotherapies.

“We are very pleased to partner with MSD as we explore the therapeutic potential of Nectin’s treatment in combination with Keytruda (Merck’s treatment),” said Dr. Keren Paz, Chief Development Officer of Nectin Therapeutics.

“This collaboration represents an important milestone for Nectin, and a promising new therapy for cancer patients.  We look forward to advancing clinical trials as we pursue the development of new treatment options for patients who do not respond to existing therapies.”

Nectin Therapeutics is based in Jerusalem, with an office in New Jersey, USA.