As­traZeneca ax­es an­oth­er R&D track on dur­val­um­ab af­ter once again falling be­hind ri­vals

It’s not easy be­ing fourth.

The R&D team at As­traZeneca had thought that its sin­gle-arm study for its Phase II tri­al of the PD-L1 check­point dur­val­um­ab might have of­fered a short­cut to an ap­proval for sec­ond-line head and neck can­cer. But Mer­ck eas­i­ly beat them to the mar­ket with Keytru­da for head and neck with a nod in Au­gust and now Bris­tol-My­ers is breath­ing down its neck in the hope that they can cat­a­pult ahead — which would be wel­come af­ter the em­bar­rass­ing lung can­cer de­ba­cle.

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