STAT+: Merck executive plays down impact of new lung cancer drug data on Keytruda
With strong data released over the weekend, an experimental Chinese drug showed it could one day become an important therapy for lung cancer patients. But that doesn’t necessarily threaten the market dominance of Keytruda, a top Merck executive said — and some analysts agree.
“I see these results as important, but preliminary,” Merck Chief Medical Officer Eliav Barr told STAT, reacting to the presentation Sunday of a Phase 3 clinical trial involving ivonescimab, a drug invented by Chinese drugmaker Akeso and licensed to Summit Therapeutics.
In the study, called HARMONi-2, ivonescimab nearly doubled the time patients with non-small cell lung cancer went before their cancer returned, from 5.8 months to 11.1 months, compared to Merck’s Keytruda.
