(Reuters) - Patients with untreated advanced non-small cell lung cancer who took Merck & Co's Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in a large trial went longer without their disease worsening and showed a survival advantage over those given standard chemotherapy, the drugmaker said on Thursday.
The KEYNOTE-024 trial was conducted in patients whose tumors expressed high levels of PD-L1 (tumor proportion score of 50 percent or more).
In this population, Keytruda was superior to chemotherapy for the primary endpoint of progression-free survival and the secondary endpoint of overall survival.
An independent data monitoring board recommended that the late-stage trial be stopped due to the favorable results, Merck said, thereby allowing patients who were taking chemotherapy to switch over to the company's treatment.
Keytruda, which blocks the interaction between PD-1 and its ligands, PD-L1 and PD-L2, is already approved for patients who have undergone previous chemotherapy for advanced non-small lung cancer. Merck hopes the new data will allow the injectable drug, which has a list price of about $150,000 a year, to be used earlier as a treatment for the most common form of lung cancer.
The company, whose shares rose 1.1 percent in early trading, said it would provide detailed data from the study at an upcoming medical meeting.
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