FDA OKs Mer­ck’s heavy­weight Keytru­da for can­cer niche — trig­ger­ing ti­tle fight with the street brawlers at Re­gen­eron

When Re­gen­eron won its first OK for their PD-1 Lib­tayo as a treat­ment for re­cur­rent or metasta­t­ic cu­ta­neous squa­mous cell car­ci­no­ma, the sec­ond most com­mon form of skin can­cer, com­pa­ny pres­i­dent George Yan­copou­los crowed about their abil­i­ty to grab a ma­jor niche mar­ket left wide open by the 2 big pow­er­hous­es in the field, Mer­ck and Bris­tol My­ers.

To­day, though, Re­gen­eron and their part­ners at Sanofi no longer en­joy a mo­nop­oly in that par­tic­u­lar field. Mer­ck grabbed an OK for their top-sell­ing PD-1 Keytru­da in the same group of pa­tients. But don’t ex­pect Re­gen­eron — still strug­gling to boost sales — to let go of their best-in-class claims.

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