Singapore, Aug 30, 2010: US-based Idera Pharmaceuticals, announced that it has achieved a milestone under its worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The milestone was achieved upon Merck KGaA’s initiation of a Phase 1b clinical trial of IMO-2055 (EMD 1201081), an agonist of Toll-like Receptor 9 (TLR9), in combination with cisplatin, fluorouracil and cetuximab (Erbitux) in first-line treatment of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). Under the terms of the agreement, Idera is entitled to receive a payment of €3.0 million (approximately $3.8 million) from Merck KGaA.

“We are very pleased that Merck KGaA has initiated a clinical trial to evaluate IMO-2055 in the first-line treatment of patients with head and neck cancer,” said Dr Tim Sullivan, Idera’s Vice President of Development Programs and Alliance Management. “The first-line trial is in addition to the Phase 2 clinical trial announced earlier this year to evaluate IMO-2055 in second-line treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic SCCHN.”

Idera Pharmaceuticals entered into a worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in December 2007 for the research, development and commercialization of Idera’s Toll-like Receptor 9 (TLR9) agonists, including IMO-2055, for the potential treatment of cancers. In addition to the clinical study announced today, under the company’s collaboration with Merck KGaA, IMO-2055 is being evaluated in a Phase 2 clinical trial in combination with Erbitux in second-line patients with recurrent or metastatic SCCHN, in a Phase 1b clinical trial in combination with erlotinib (Tarceva) and bevacizumab (Avastin) in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer and in a Phase 1b clinical trial in combination with Erbitux and an irinotecan-containing treatment regimen in patients with colorectal cancer.