Merck drops MS collaboration with Apitope

In September 2015, Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany) completed enrolment of 93 patients with remitting-relapsing MS for an open-label Phase IIa study in which patients were set to be treated with ATX-MS-1467 (M2736) for 20 weeks and observed for further 16 weeks. Now, Apitope (Chepstow, UK and Hasselt, Belgium) announced it regained the global development rights to its multiple sclerosis vaccine from the German company. ATX-MS-1467 (M2736) consists of four synthetic peptides derived from myelin basic protein which are designed to induce immunological tolerance of T-cells to MS-associated autoantigens by boosting interleukin 10 levels and decreasing levels of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL17 or IL2.

According to the agreement dating back to 2009, Apitope received development costs for ATX-MS-1467 until Phase II, after which Merck had to decide whether it will exclusively continue development and commercialisation or not. After having regained the rights from Merck, Apitope management said it believes that ATX-MS-1467 has enormous clinical potential for treating MS patients and that Apitope aims to pursue new business collaborations to progress development of its treatment