New progress in the first-line treatment of NSCLC with keysruda

Source: on January 16, 2018, MSD announced that the key phase III keynote-189 study of keytruda combined with chemotherapy (pemetrexed and platinum drugs) in the first-line treatment of metastatic non squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has achieved encouraging results The result also pushed the shares up 8.5% in early trading This study compared the effects of pemetrexed plus platinum chemotherapy on the overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) of patients The results showed that keytruda combined chemotherapy (pemetrexed and platinum drugs) significantly prolonged the overall survival and progression free survival of patients Although Merck did not give details of the trial, the positive results of this combination far exceeded expectations For any PD-1 / L1 inhibitor, the most important is the NSCLC market, because there are a large number of patients So far, keytruda is the only checkpoint inhibitor approved for first-line treatment The published phase III clinical trial further consolidated the position of keytruda combined chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of NSCLC At present, the revenue of keytruda (pembrolizumab) of Merck still lags behind that of opdivo (nivolumab) of BMS, but keytruda has made continuous progress and is very fast As checkpoint inhibitors continue to be approved and flooded the market, people begin to question how many of these drugs the market really needs So far, keytruda and opdivo have taken the lead, and seem to have prevented other competitors from gaining huge market share Unless something unexpected happens, these two drugs will be the leaders of checkpoint inhibitors.