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news.Vertex Pharmaceuticals has initiated a phase II clinical development program for VX-680, an anticancer drug candidate targeting aurora kinase that the company is developing in combination with Merck & Co.
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As part of this collaboration Vertex earned a $10 million milestone payment from Merck & Co for the initiation of phase II development for the drug.
The initiation of phase II is based on the enrollment of patients with advanced colorectal cancer in a phase II extension of a previous phase I clinical study. In addition, Merck expects to initiate a phase II clinical study for VX-680 in patients with advanced lung cancer this year.
“We continue to make progress in the development of VX-680 as marked by the initiation of the phase II clinical development program,” said Dr Stephen Friend, executive vice president of oncology at Merck Research Laboratories. “This phase II study represents a continuation of our efforts to broadly assess the activity of VX-680 in a range of solid tumors and hematologic cancers.”