Idera Pharmaceuticals Regains Global Rights to IMO-2055 in Oncology from Merck KGaA

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

today announced that it has regained global rights to IMO-2055, an agonist of Toll-like Receptor (

) 9, as part of an agreed-upon termination of its oncology collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. During the collaboration, Merck KGaA conducted Phase 1 trials of IMO-2055 in several cancer indications and has an ongoing randomized Phase 2 trial of IMO-2055 in combination with Erbitux^ in patients with squamous cell cancer of the head and neck. As previously announced in July 2011, Merck had informed Idera that it would not continue clinical development of IMO-2055 beyond completing the ongoing Phase 2 trial in SCCHN.