Merck & Co falls back based on Keytruda data

Keytruda (pembrolizumab) is already approved in five lung cancer indications, but the Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) drug does not have the market entirely cornered, new data shows.

The US giant, which is known as MSD outside North America, announced late on Monday that the Phase III KEYNOTE-604 trial investigating the anti-PD-1 therapy alongside chemotherapy, met one of its dual primary endpoints of progression-free survival (PFS) in the first-line treatment of patients with extensive stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC).

But the study failed to result in a statistically-significant improvement in overall survival, the other dual primary endpoint. Merck was down 1% in pre-market trading on Tuesday.