ASCO abstracts hint at a company coming good in oncology, says Merck KGaA's Zhen Su

Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRK: DE) has not appeared near the summit of any rankings on top pharma companies by oncology revenue in recent years, with earnings from its sole cancer product Erbitux (cetuximab) dropping to below $1 billion in 2016.

But the volume, variety and strength of the data that the company is presenting on immuno-oncology and small-molecule drugs at ASCO 2017 should put it firmly on the map even in what is pharma’s fastest-moving therapy area.

The most topical presentations will be on avelumab, an immuno-oncology drug with the trade name Bavencio for which Merck, in collaboration with US pharma giant Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), has received two US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals in the last two months.

These accelerated approvals came in certain instances of urothelial carcinoma, of which bladder cancer, the sixth most common cancer in the USA, makes up approximately 90% of cases, and in merkel-cell carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of skin cancer.

Under the accelerated approval scheme, continued approval for both indications is contingent upon verification of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials, but that is far from the end of the ongoing research into avelumab.

It will feature in as many as 13 abstracts at ASCO, highlighting the progress of avelumab as a monotherapy and potential novel combination treatment option, and of the alliance between the two companies, which signed a strategic alliance to co-develop and co-commercialize the drug in 2014.

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Zhen Su, head of Merck’s global oncology medical affairs division and formerly of French pharma major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) and the UK’s GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), tells The Pharma Letter that the synergy between the two companies makes the avelumab alliance “one of the best” collaborations he has experienced in the industry.