RefleXion announced today that it entered into a clinical collaboration with Merck to evaluate Merck’s (NYSE:MRK) Keytruda anti-PD-1 therapy in clinical trials.
Hayward, Calif.-based therapeutic oncology company RefleXion is joining forces with Merck to evaluate Keytruda’s safety and efficacy in combination with RefleXion’s biology-guided radiotherapy (BgRT) in multiple late-stage cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer, in two randomized controlled clinical trials.
The companies set their aim to establish whether treating multiple tumors with BgRT is safe and amplifies Keytruda’s therapeutic effect, according to a news release.
RefleXion’s X1 machine uses BgRT to deliver radiotherapy to multiple sites during the same treatment sessions, even for certain sites that move due to breathing or digestion. The company recently raised $100 million in a financing round following FDA clearance wins for its stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), while it also secured its first clinical and commercial client for X1.
“We believe BgRT will one day treat all visible tumor sites, which could lead to better patient outcomes, particularly when used with immunotherapy,” RefleXion CEO & president Todd Powell said in the news release. “The collaboration with Merck will allow us to explore this combined effect in randomized controlled clinical trials that, if successful, may lead to significant changes in the way physicians approach cancer care for patients with late-stage disease.”