Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer Announce First Patient Treated in Phase III Combination Study with Avelumab and INLYTA® in Renal Cell Carcinoma | Pfizer Pharmaceutical News and Media | Pfizer: the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company

DARMSTADT, Germany & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) today announced the treatment of the first patient in a Phase III study of avelumab*, an investigational fully human anti-PD-L1 IgG1 monoclonal antibody, in an advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) setting. The study, JAVELIN Renal 101, is the first pivotal trial investigating avelumab in combination with INLYTA® (axitinib), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), in patients with previously untreated advanced RCC, and the only Phase III trial currently evaluating an anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy in combination with a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-receptor TKI in this setting. The current 5-year survival rate for patients with distant metastatic RCC is approximately 12 percent.1



Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer Announce First Patient Treated in Phase III Combination Study with Avelumab and INLYTA® in Renal Cell Carcinoma | Pfizer Pharmaceutical News and Media | Pfizer: the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company