Merck's melanoma drug shows early promise for resistant cancers in PhI trial
Early news on a Merck drug candidate has researchers hopeful that the investigational therapy could be used to fight drug resistant cancers. The data is early — and on a very small patient group — but researchers say the drug’s performance matches initial response rates to approved treatments like MEK inhibitors.
The treatment, called MK-8353, was tested in patients with melanoma and other cancers with mutations in the BRAF or RAS genes. The drug was designed to block the ERK signal, which has been shown to help drive cancer cell growth in resistant melanoma and other diseases.
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