Merck's Keytruda fails head and neck cancer trial

[July 20, 2022]  (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc said on Wednesday its cancer therapy Keytruda failed to meet the main goal of a late-stage trial testing it in patients with head and neck cancer.

The logo for Merck & Co. is displayed on a screen at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

The company said Keytruda, its blockbuster cancer drug, in combination with chemoraditation therapy showed improvement in event-free survival, or the period of time a patient remains free of complications compared to a placebo.

However, the results did not meet statistical significance.

Keytruda showed a safety profile similar to previously reported studies, according to Merck.

The drug belongs to a class of treatments called PD-1 inhibitors, which work by boosting the immune system's ability to fight cancer cells.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)


 

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