As ri­vals wait in line, Mer­ck­'s Keytru­da scores ear­ly FDA nod for front­line pa­tients with the most com­mon form of kid­ney can­cer

Mer­ck’s key­stone im­munother­a­py Keytru­da is poised to be­come the key front­line ther­a­py for a com­mon form of kid­ney can­cer, ahead of check­point in­hibitor ri­vals who are vy­ing for a piece of the mar­ket for pre­vi­ous­ly un­treat­ed pa­tients with re­nal cell car­ci­no­ma (RCC).

Topline da­ta re­leased last Oc­to­ber showed a com­bi­na­tion of Keytru­da and Pfiz­er’s $PFE ty­ro­sine ki­nase in­hibitor (TKI) In­ly­ta in the KEYNOTE-426 tri­al im­proved over­all sur­vival, pro­gres­sion-free sur­vival and over­all re­sponse rates across risk groups, re­gard­less of PD-L1 sta­tus, com­pared to Pfiz­er’s Su­tent in first-line RCC pa­tients. Mer­ck $MRK of­fered fur­ther de­tail in Feb­ru­ary, in­di­cat­ing the Keytru­da com­bo sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­proved OS [re­duc­ing the risk of death by near­ly half (HR 0.53)] as well as PFS (HR 0.69).

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