Bavencio I-O combo adds to crowd of kidney cancer competitors

In the first-line kidney cancer setting, Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRK: DE) has thrown its hat firmly into the ring, with strong data from the JAVELIN Renal 101 trial showing the firm is ready to go toe to toe with its American namesake, and others.

A combination of Bavencio (avelumab) plus the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) Inlyta (axitinib) was shown to improve progression-free survival (PFS) for untreated patients, with median PFS of 13.8 months versus 7.2 months for those who were PD-L1-positive.

Median PFS irrespective of PD-L1 expression was 13.8 versus 8.4 months in the trial, which pitted the combo against Sutent (sunitinib).