Merck's Daring Bid For Lung Cancer Domination

5/1/17

Not long ago Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) threw down the gauntlet to its oncology rivals, saying the checkpoint inhibitor space was all about winning in first-line lung cancer. It will soon find out whether its most audacious bid for domination has paid off.

This involves the US accelerated approval filing of a Keytruda plus chemo first-line combo based on Keynote-021 data, an FDA verdict on which is due by May 10. The filing had caught many unawares, but while Merck looks likely to prevail eventually there are reasons to suppose that this challenge might not immediately be successful.

Perhaps the most obvious caveat is the imminent readout of a competitor, Roche's (OTCQX:RHHBY) Tecentriq, in the Impower-150 trial. Impower-150 is due to yield survival data in the second half of 2017, and it could make sense for the FDA to wait for this and other readouts before deciding on the robustness of Keynote-021.

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