Pfizer has formed a collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to work with NCI’s Center for Cancer Research to arrange and conduct preclinical and clinical trials to evaluate three investigational immunotherapy agents as cancer treatments. These include Pfizer’s immunotherapy agonistic monoclonal antibodies targeting OX40 (CD134); utomilumab, targeting 4-1BB (CD137); and avelumab, a fully human anti-PD-L1 IgG1 monoclonal antibody that is being developed through an alliance between Merck KGaA and Pfizer.

The agreement is a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). The purpose of a CRADA is to make government facilities, intellectual property, and expertise available for collaborative interactions to further the development of scientific and technological knowledge into useful, marketable products, according to the NIH.

Under the CRADA, the three investigational immunotherapies will be studied alone, in various combinations with each other, and in combination with standard therapies, such as chemotherapy, radiation and targeted therapies across a range of cancers.

Source: Pfizer