Israeli biopharmaceutical company BioLineRX Ltd said on Tuesday it would collaborate with U.S. industry heavyweight Merck to test a combination of drugs for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The companies will partner in a mid-stage study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the combination of BioLineRx’s BL-8040 and Merck’s Keytruda in patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma. “Because certain tumors exhibit only a modest response to existing immunotherapies, we are increasingly seeing clinical studies involving combinations of immuno-oncology agents with other classes of drugs,” said Kinneret Savitsky, BioLineRx’s chief executive.