Aduro Biotech Announces Clinical Collaboration with Merck to Evaluate the Combination of Aduro’s CRS-207 with Merck’s KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for the Treatment of Gastric Cancer

BERKELEY, Calif., Jan. 09, 2017 -- Aduro Biotech, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADRO), a biopharmaceutical company with three distinct immunotherapy technologies, announced today a clinical collaboration with Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada). The companies will investigate the combination of CRS-207, Aduro’s LADD (live, attenuated double-deleted) based immunotherapy, with Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for the treatment of gastric cancer.

“CRS-207 has demonstrated the ability to induce an anti-tumor immune response in clinical trials in other tumor types that over express the tumor antigen, mesothelin,” said Dirk G. Brockstedt, Ph.D., executive vice president of Research and Development at Aduro.  “Gastric cancer is an immune-sensitive mesothelin-expressing tumor where PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors have shown some activity. The combination of inducing an immune response through CRS-207, while simultaneously suppressing the cancer’s ability to evade the immune system through a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, has resulted in synergistic anti-tumor activity in pre-clinical studies. We aspire to reproduce this activity in the clinic in patients with gastric cancer.” 

The multicenter Phase 1 study, planned to begin in the first half of the year, will enroll patients with metastatic gastric cancer who have failed at least two prior therapies to receive the combination of CRS-207 and pembrolizumab.  

About LADD and CRS-207
LADD is Aduro's proprietary platform of live, attenuated double-deleted Listeria monocytogenes strains that have been engineered to generate a potent innate immune response and to express tumor-associated antigens to induce tumor-specific T cell-mediated immunity.

CRS-207 is one of a family of product candidates based on Aduro's LADD immunotherapy platform that has been engineered to express the tumor-associated antigen mesothelin, which is over-expressed in many cancers including mesothelioma and pancreatic, non-small cell lung, ovarian, endometrial and gastric cancers.

About Aduro
Aduro Biotech, Inc. is an immunotherapy company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapies that transform the treatment of challenging diseases. Aduro's technology platforms, which are designed to harness the body's natural immune system, are being investigated in cancer indications and have the potential to expand into autoimmune and infectious diseases. Aduro's LADD technology platform is based on proprietary attenuated strains of Listeria that have been engineered to express tumor-associated antigens to induce specific and targeted immune responses. This platform is being developed as a treatment for multiple indications, including ovarian, lung and prostate cancers, mesothelioma and glioblastoma. Additionally, a personalized form of LADD, or pLADD, is being developed utilizing tumor neoantigens that are specific to an individual patient’s tumor. Aduro's STING Pathway Activator platform is designed to activate the intracellular STING receptor, resulting in a potent tumor-specific immune response. ADU-S100 is the first STING Pathway Activator compound to enter the clinic and is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 study in patients with cutaneously accessible metastatic solid tumors or lymphomas. Aduro’s B-select monoclonal antibody platform includes a number of immune modulating assets in research and preclinical development. Aduro is collaborating with leading global pharmaceutical companies to expand its products and technology platforms. For more information, please visit www.aduro.com.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions or current expectations concerning, among other things, the combination of CRS-207 with pembrolizumab for the potential treatment of gastric cancer, the potential for our technology platforms, plans, and the potential for eventual regulatory approval of our product candidates. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “may,” “will,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “project,” “expect” or the negative or plural of these words or similar expressions.  Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those anticipated, including, but not limited to, our history of net operating losses and uncertainty regarding our ability to achieve profitability, our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates, our ability to use and expand our technology platforms to build a pipeline of product candidates, our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our product candidates, our inability to operate in a competitive industry and compete successfully against competitors that have greater resources than we do, our reliance on third parties, and our ability to obtain and adequately protect intellectual property rights for our product candidates.  We discuss many of these risks in greater detail under the heading “Risk Factors” contained in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2016, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements that we make in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. We assume no obligation to update our forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.

KEYTRUDA® is a registered trademark of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc.

Contact:
Sylvia Wheeler
SVP, Corporate Affairs
510 809 9264

Media Contact:
Susan Lehner
510 809 2137
[email protected]