Back in 2016-17, BMS's Optivo® beat Merck, as first to win FDA approval in that arena, but both are presently in use -- for this indication. I'd expect Keytruda® sales to keep growing overall, but see tougher sledding in this, and the colorectal arena. . . as we noted a day or two ago.
That said, this company is a strong contender for best conservative investment, in a stag-flationary environment, with rising interest rates. . . like now.
In any event, here's Rahway's presser on it this morning, and a bit:
. . .Merck today announced that the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-412 trial evaluating KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab), Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, with concurrent chemoradiation therapy (CRT) followed by KEYTRUDA as maintenance therapy (the KEYTRUDA regimen), did not meet its primary endpoint of event-free survival (EFS) for the treatment of patients with unresected locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). At the final analysis of the study, there was an improvement in EFS for patients who received the KEYTRUDA regimen compared to placebo plus CRT; however, these results did not meet statistical significance per the pre-specified statistical plan. . . .
Onward, grinning -- while looking back over ten, nine, seven and five long years. . . with youngest son coming home next week, from the Pacific Northwest. . . so much to smile about!
नमस्ते
3 comments:
Speaking of Keydura here's a very interesting piece about Keydura and Merck's purchase of SP based on it's 5 star late stage products where Saphris was #1.
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/looking-back-merck-schering-plough
Thanks! Yep. Derek was usually pretty good back then, but he was retreading stuff we wrote, and mid-identified Ed, as Peter, or vice versa.
But still true stuff. Maybe the most disappointing (non-delivering) US CEO in big pharma public company history.
Namaste. . . .
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