ZURICH, Switzerland -- Vaximm Holding, a joint venture between Merck and a Swiss investment fund, will start testing an experimental cancer vaccine in patients next year.

The 40-person study will give Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck a stake in a second anti-tumor vaccine in human trials. The researchers will recruit patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, with results expected in 12 months, said Vaximm board chairman Klaus Breiner, a partner in Zurich-based BB Biotech Ventures III, Merck's collaborator in the joint venture.

Like Roche Holding's top-selling cancer therapy Avastin, the experimental therapy VXM01 works by choking off a tumor's blood supply, Mr. Breiner said in an interview. Unlike Avastin, the vaccine harnesses the body's own T-cells to kill the blood vessels surrounding a tumor. Therapeutic vaccines like VXM01 work differently from traditional vaccines, enlisting the immune system to fight disease, instead of to prevent infection.

"It's the next, the better Avastin," and will target similar types of cancers as the Roche drug, BB Biotech Ventures partner Juerg Eckhardt said in an interview. "It's early days, but it has lots of potential."

Merck owns 25 percent of the Vaximm joint venture, drug maker spokeswoman Phyllis Carter said in an e-mail. The venture fund owns 68 percent, Mr. Eckhardt said. Vaximm's management holds the remainder through a stock-option plan.

The companies formed the venture in 2008 after Merck decided not to develop VXM01 itself, Mr. Eckhardt said. "They have had a strategy of actively giving away drugs that they had on their shelf, because they felt it's better if someone else develops it, and they keep a part of the action, than just having it sit on the shelf," he said.

Merck is developing another experimental vaccine, Stimuvax, for use against lung and breast cancer. The drug maker resumed tests of Stimuvax in lung cancer patients last month, ending a three-month hiatus requested by U.S. regulators after a patient with a blood malignancy developed a brain infection while taking the vaccine. A trial in breast cancer remains on hold.

Licensed from Seattle-based Oncothyreon Inc., Stimuvax may generate as much as $1 billion in annual sales to boost a portfolio of cancer medicines now led by Erbitux, according to Merck. Erbitux generated sales of $885 million last year.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.