Amgen and Merck & Co. Inc. have announced a cancer immunotherapy collaboration to support a Phase Ib/III study investigating BLINCYTO, or blinatumomab, in combination with KEYTRUDA, or pembrolizumab, in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, or DLBCL. BLINCYTO is Amgen's CD19 bispecific T cell engager (BiTE), and KEYTRUDA is Merck's anti-PD-1 antibody.

The study is an open-label, multicenter, randomized trial to evaluate safety and efficacy in patients with DLBCL. The companies also announced a second immunotherapy cancer collaboration to support a Phase I/II study of AMG 820, Amgen's anti-colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) antibody, in combination with KEYTRUDA in patients with select advanced solid tumors. The open-label study is designed to evaluate safety and efficacy in patients with select advanced solid tumors, including non-small-cell lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancers.