Check­point com­bos for can­cer are all the rage as tri­al spon­sors line up hun­dreds of new stud­ies — re­port

Num­ber of An­ti-PD-1/PD-L1 MAb com­bi­na­tion stud­ies 2015 vs. 2017
Full Re­port: Eval­u­ate Ltd. May 2017

Over the last few months it hasn’t been un­usu­al to see new com­bi­na­tion stud­ies be­ing an­nounced on a dai­ly ba­sis, match­ing one of the 5 ap­proved PD-(L)1 check­point drugs with an­oth­er can­cer ther­a­py. Some morn­ings they come in pairs.

It’s not hard to see why. The check­points typ­i­cal­ly work as a monother­a­py — though there have been some nasty set­backs over the past 6 months. And some of the big play­ers are hap­py to con­tribute their drug to stud­ies spon­sored by oth­ers look­ing to ad­vance a pi­lot Phase I/II ex­plorato­ry study. There are al­so re­cent ex­am­ples of some big tie-ups be­tween Mer­ck (Keytru­da) and Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb (Op­di­vo) check­points with In­cyte in Phase III.

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