MedImmune Teams Up With Mirati on Lung Cancer Trials

MedImmune and Mirati Therapeutics are collaborating on early-phase clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of investigational drugs in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

The trials, expected to begin next year, will combine MedImmune’s durvalumab, an anti-PDL1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, with Mirati’s mocetinostat, a spectrum-selective histone deacetylase inhibitor.

Under the agreement, Mirati will conduct and fund the initial trials and MedImmune will supply durvalumab. If those studies show positive results, Medimmune — AstraZeneca’s global biologics R&D arm — will have an exclusive period to negotiate a commercial license for the combination.

On their own, mocetinostat has FDA orphan drug designation as a treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and durvalumab has been accelerated into Phase 3 clinical development in NSCLC and head and neck cancers.

The companies said additional indications for the combined drugs may be explored in the future. — Jonathon Shacat