Cancer Research UK and Cancer Research Technology (CRT) have announced they will undertake a phase I clinical trial of Merck's investigational monoclonal antibody drug, DI-B4.
DI-B4 is the fourth anti-cancer drug to enter Cancer Research UK's Clinical Development Partnerships (CDP) programme - an initiative that allows companies to retain the rights to a treatment while enabling the charity to take on its early development work.
DI-B4 is the first monoclonal antibody to join the scheme.
DI-B4 binds to the CD19 protein, found on B-cells, and is thought to recruit cells from the immune system to attack the tumour.
It is hoped that it may one day help patients with leukaemia and lymphoma that do not respond to existing therapies.
Currently, the standard treatment for B-cell lymphoma targets the CD20 protein.
DI-B4 will be one of the first drugs to be manufactured at Cancer Research UK's GBP20 million Biotherapeutic Development Unit.
After pre-clinical work on it has been completed, it will be trialled in around 20-40 patients with advanced B-cell lymphoma - a cancer of the white blood cells.
The trial will be managed by Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office and will take place at up to five hospitals across the UK.
Under the terms of the partnership, Cancer Research UK will fund the study through early clinical development.
Merck will then have the option to take forward and commercialise the drug in exchange for future payments to the charity.
If Merck elects not to progress the programme, the rights to the molecule will be given to CRT to secure an alternative development partner.
Dr Andrew Davies, Cancer Research UK senior lecturer in medical oncology at the University of Southampton, will run the phase I trial at Southampton General Hospital.
He said: 'Existing treatments that target cancerous cells and draw in the body's immune system can be extremely helpful.
'But we still need to search for alternative approaches for patients with B-cell cancers that have not responded to existing treatments.
'We hope that DI-B4 will have the same effects in patients as it has shown in the lab,' he added.
