Merck: Keytruda fails Phase III trial - shares slightly down

(CercleFinance.com) - Merck's immunotherapy Keytruda has failed in a late-stage trial on patients with a common but difficult-to-treat type of liver cancer.


The company said a pivotal Phase 3 trial evaluating Keytruda for the treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma did not meet its co-primary endpoints of overall survival and progression-free survival compared with placebo.

There was an improvement in overall survival, however the results did not meet statistical significance, Merck said.

Keytruda is currently being studied across multiple settings and types of cancer.

Yesterday the FDA granted priority review for the drug for the treatment of patients with advanced small-cell lung cancer, whose disease has progressed after two or more lines of prior therapy.

Merck shares are down over 0.1%, trading around 79.2 dollars a few minutes after the market opened today.

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