Merck Sees A Second Futility Outcome, In TIGIT Agents For Hard To Treat Lung Cancers...

And this likely explains the quick pivot we mentioned a couple days ago, in moving the Harpoon candidate into the Daiichi venture lineup. Looking for more avenues to address this high burden cancer, that in the main has been impervious to Merck's Keytruda (and combos). Meanwhile Roche's Tecentriq has seen some efficacy in similar cancers, in combination with other agents.

So -- more granularity on how we may see the evolution of SCLC treatments unfold, in the years ahead. Still not quite material news -- but inching toward it. Here's an excellent explainer this morning, from FierceBioTech:

. . .The action is the second big blow to Merck’s work on TIGIT, a target that has underwhelmed across the industry, in a matter of months. The earlier blow arrived in May, when a higher rate of discontinuations, mainly due to “immune-mediated adverse experiences,” led Merck to stop a phase 3 trial in melanoma. Immune-related adverse events have now proven to be a problem in two of Merck’s phase 3 TIGIT trials.

Merck is continuing to evaluate vibostolimab with Keytruda in three phase 3 non-SCLC trials that have primary completion dates in 2026 and 2028. The company said “interim external data monitoring committee safety reviews have not resulted in any study modifications to date.”

Merck has other shots on goal in SCLC. The drugmaker’s $4 billion bet on Daiichi Sankyo’s antibody-drug conjugates secured it one candidate. Buying Harpoon Therapeutics for $650 million gave Merck a T-cell engager to throw at the tumor type. The Big Pharma brought the two threads together this week by partnering the ex-Harpoon program with Daiichi. . . .

Now you know. And to be sure, Merck's Keytruda^® will be -- and remain -- a $25 billion plus a year treatment of choice in many other cancers (well into the 2030s, too), no matter how these hard to treat lung studies come out.

Onward, with elder baby girl visiting all day, today -- and the men's 200M final tonight -- will watch it tape delayed (since I'm out of pocket); but still good. Smile.

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