In­cyte wins ac­cel­er­at­ed ap­proval for PD-1 in rare skin can­cer

In­cyte tout­ed an ac­cel­er­at­ed ap­proval for its PD-1 reti­fan­limab in a rare skin can­cer on Wednes­day, rough­ly a year and a half af­ter the drug suf­fered a re­jec­tion in squa­mous cell car­ci­no­ma of the anal canal (SCAC).

Reti­fan­limab, mar­ket­ed as Zynyz, was ap­proved for metasta­t­ic or re­cur­rent lo­cal­ly ad­vanced Merkel cell car­ci­no­ma (MCC), a fast-grow­ing skin can­cer typ­i­cal­ly char­ac­ter­ized by a sin­gle, pain­less nod­ule. It’s rough­ly 40 times rar­er than melanoma, ac­cord­ing to the non­prof­it Skin Can­cer Foun­da­tion — but in­ci­dence is grow­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly among old­er adults, In­cyte said in its an­nounce­ment.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER