In­cyte's PD-1 pri­or­i­ty re­view draws mut­ed cheer — but an­a­lysts say it's all about get­ting a foot in the door

An eighth PD-(L)1 in­hibitor is lin­ing up at the FDA with the promise of bring­ing an­oth­er big ad­vance in can­cer ther­a­py. Just don’t ex­pect it to be a block­buster.

The lat­est en­trant to the check­point in­hibitor ring is In­cyte, whose reti­fan­limab is slat­ed for a de­ci­sion by Ju­ly 25 (like­ly just af­ter Glax­o­SmithK­line’s dostar­limab) thanks to a pri­or­i­ty re­view.

Fol­low­ing an ex­am­ple set by Re­gen­eron and Sanofi with Lib­tayo, In­cyte is shoot­ing first for a niche in­di­ca­tion — specif­i­cal­ly, sec­ond-line late squa­mous cell car­ci­no­ma of the anal canal (SCAC). Lance Leopold, vice pres­i­dent of im­muno-on­col­o­gy clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment, called it a “his­tor­i­cal­ly ne­glect­ed, yet im­por­tant, tu­mor.”

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