Merck Strong On Confirmatory Phase III Lung Cancer Study
Zacks Investment Research | Jan 16, 2018 10:48PM ET
Merck's (NYSE:MRK) shares gained more than 5% on Jan 16, after the company announced that its anti-PD-1 therapy, Keytruda, in combination with Eli Lilly’s (NYSE:LLY) Alimta (pemetrexed) and carboplatin (pem/carbo) met dual primary endpoints in a confirmatory phase III KEYNOTE-189 study. The combination was evaluated for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Notably, in May 2017, this combination therapy was granted an accelerated approval by the FDA for the aforementioned indication. Hence, the positive readouts from the phase III confirmatory study will help the company gain a continued approval for the combo therapy.
We remind investors that in the third quarter of 2017, the company mentioned that it is including the overall survival (OS) as a co-primary endpoint in the KEYNOTE-189 study of Keytruda in first-line NSCLC, which will defer the readout from the study to 2019. Therefore, the data now released came in much earlier than investor’s expectations, which is a big boost to the company.
Merck’s shares have inched up 1% in a year’s time, comparing unfavorably with the 20.3% rally of its Zacks Investment Research
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