Mer­ck­'s Keytru­da wins first check­point in­hibitor lung can­cer ap­proval in Chi­na; Puma sells rights to Ner­l­ynx in Eu­rope, parts of Africa for $60M up­front

→ Mer­ck’s en­trenched flag­ship Keytru­da im­munother­a­py has just scored a key lung can­cer ap­proval in Chi­na. The drug, al­ready sanc­tioned for use in ad­vanced melanoma in the ge­og­ra­phy since last Ju­ly, has now won the nod for metasta­t­ic non­squa­mous NSCLC, mark­ing the first an­ti-PD-1 ther­a­py ap­proved for more than one tu­mor type in Chi­na. Al­to­geth­er, Keytru­da is now ap­proved in com­bi­na­tion with chemother­a­py for this pa­tient pop­u­la­tion in the US, Eu­rope, Japan and Chi­na, among oth­er coun­tries. The block­buster check­point in­hibitor gen­er­at­ed about $7.2 bil­lion in sales last year for Mer­ck $MRK.

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