For­get Bris­tol-My­ers: Re­gen­eron takes on Mer­ck for the heavy­weight ti­tle in non-small cell lung can­cer

Re­gen­eron may have been the 6th bio­phar­ma com­pa­ny to land an ini­tial ap­proval for a PD-1/L1 ther­a­py, but they’re clear­ly not set­tling for any­thing close to a last-place fin­ish in the amaz­ing race for mar­ket dom­i­nance in the mega-block­buster field.

In their Q4 call with an­a­lysts on Thurs­day, Re­gen­eron’s not-shy R&D chief George Yan­copou­los tout­ed their cap­ture of the lead role among check­points in treat­ing ad­vanced cu­ta­neous squa­mous cell car­ci­no­ma. In an in­ter­view with End­points News last month, Yan­copou­los made so se­cret of his opin­ions about the PD-L1s on the mar­ket, slam­ming them all as sec­ond-rate and as­sign­ing worst-in-class sta­tus to Baven­cio from Pfiz­er and Mer­ck KGaA. But they’re al­so mov­ing to chal­lenge gi­ant Mer­ck’s Keytru­da — an­oth­er PD-1 — on one of its ma­jor achieve­ments: win­ning an OK as a monother­a­py for front­line use in non-small cell lung can­cer.

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