To be certain, this is a piece of material good news — for ABL Bio — and a nice validation of the Grabody-T approach. We shall see how the clinical trial turns out, but it will be definitively immaterial, to Merck’s overall trajectory, up or down.

Here’s the scoop, from The PharmaLetter — and a bit:

…ABL Bio – whose shares rose 4% on the news -will conduct a phase Ib/II clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ABL103 in combination with Keytruda. In this combination study, MSD will supply Keytruda.

ABL103 is bispecific antibody that simultaneously targets B7-H4 and 4-1BB. ABL103 is one of the pipeline programs in which ABL Bio’s 4-1BB based bispecific antibody platform ‘Grabody-T’ has been applied. Grabody-T is designed to activate T cells only in the tumor microenvironment, reducing the liver toxicity of conventional 4-1BB monoclonal antibody and enhancing the antitumor activity….

Now you know — and onward to a big upset of K-State this Saturday night, in the cool Boulder air! Woot woot! Grinning… let it be so.

नमस्ते