Citius Pharmaceuticals ( NASDAQ: CTXR ), a company focused on critical care products, added ~8% i n the pre-market Friday after announcing a collaboration to advance an investigator-initiated trial on its cancer candidate I/ONTAK for solid tumors.
In partnership with Dr. Haider Mahdi at the University of Pittsburgh, the company will test the treatment, also known as denileukin diftitox or E7777, in an open-label Phase 1 study in combination with pembrolizumab, the blockbuster cancer therapy from Merck ( MRK ). The study targeting recurrent or metastatic solid tumors is expected to begin in Q4 2022.
Additionally, the company has partnered with the University of Minnesota for an investigator-initiated Phase 1 study for I/ONTAK.
The dose-finding trial, designed to test I/ONTAK in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma before tisagenleucel (Kymriah) CAR-T therapy from Novartis ( NVS ) ( OTCPK:NVSEF ), enrolled the first patient in May.
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Citius gains on clinical collaboration to study cancer candidate