By Rob Curran


Lava Therapeutics shares surged after the biotech company said one of its product candidates would be tested on prostate-cancer patients in combination with Merck's blockbuster Keytruda drug.

The Dutch biopharmaceutical firm said the LAVA-1207 drug will be tested in combination with Keytruda on patients with therapy refractory metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, a particularly severe form of the disease.

Like Keytruda, Lava's suite of Gammabody drugs use an immunotherapy approach to target cancer cells. Merck will supply the Keytruda doses for patients in Lava's ongoing early-stage Phase 1/2a clinical trial of LAVA-1207, with the combination set to begin in the first half of this year.

Shares of Lava rose 32% to $2.06.


Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-25-24 0752ET