• Hummingbird Bioscience enters a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Merck to evaluate HMBD-001, a potentially best-in-class anti-HER3 mAb, in combination with cetuximab, an anti-EGFR mAb, in sqNSCLC
• HMBD-001 used as monotherapy and in combination with cetuximab has been shown to effectively inhibit tumor growth across various preclinical squamous cell carcinoma models

Under this collaboration, Hummingbird Bioscience will evaluate the safety, tolerability, and anti-tumor activity of its potentially best-in-class HER3-targeting antibody, HMBD-001, in combination with standard of care chemotherapy with or without Merck's cetuximab, anti-EGFR mAb, in patients with sqNSCLC in a Phase 1b clinical trial, to be initiated in the second half of 2023. Merck will supply cetuximab for the Hummingbird Bioscience-sponsored study and both parties will retain all commercial rights to their respective compounds.

"We are excited to collaborate with Merck to study a promising, new treatment regimen for sqNSCLC patients with significant unmet need.  This is the first squamous disease setting of several for which HER3 plays a critical role in etiology and where HER targeted therapies could potentially deliver clinical benefit," said Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Hummingbird Bioscience. "In addition to standard of care chemotherapy, the inhibition of HER3 or the concurrent inhibition of HER3 and EGFR has significant potential to improve outcomes in sqNSCLC patients refractory to front-line immunotherapies."

Hummingbird Bioscience recently presented strong scientific rationale and preclinical data for HMBD-001 used as monotherapy and in combination with cetuximab in various squamous cell carcinomas at the American Association for Cancer Research 2023 Meeting in April.