Keytru­da/epaca­do­stat com­bo crash­es in PhI­II melanoma study, rais­ing ques­tions about the fu­ture of IDO for In­cyte

A close­ly-watched Phase III study com­bin­ing Mer­ck’s PD-1 star Keytru­da with In­cyte’s IDO1 drug epaca­do­stat for metasta­t­ic melanoma has failed, cast­ing a pall over the fu­ture of this com­bi­na­tion ap­proach.

Ab­sent a sig­nif­i­cant im­prove­ment in pro­gres­sion-free sur­vival, as well as the like­ly fail­ure of the drug com­bi­na­tion to ex­tend over­all sur­vival, the in­ves­ti­ga­tors are halt­ing the study. In­cyte stuck with the top-line re­sults in their re­lease, promis­ing to roll out the full da­ta set lat­er. And they made it clear in a call with an­a­lysts this morn­ing that the ECHO-301 study fail­ure “has a neg­a­tive im­pact on the prob­a­bil­i­ty of suc­cess of the oth­er (com­bi­na­tion) stud­ies” — send­ing a shock wave through the I/O field.

Endpoints News

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.