Japan based Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited announced that it has entered into a clinical trial collaboration agreement with a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, U.S.A., known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, to evaluate the combination of DS-1062, a TROP2 directed DXd antibody drug conjugate (ADC), and KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) in patients with previously-treated advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without actionable genomic alterations.

TROP2 (trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2) is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is overexpressed in many cancers; high TROP2 expression has been identified in a majority of NSCLCs.

Under the terms of the agreement, Daiichi Sankyo will conduct a multicenter, two-part, open-label, non-randomized, phase 1b study of DS-1062 in combination with KEYTRUDA in patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC without actionable genomic alterations and previously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy with or without immunotherapy.

DS-1062 is one of three lead DXd antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) in the oncology pipeline of Daiichi Sankyo.