(Tiper Stock Exchange) – Merck & Co. (also known as MSD outside the US and Canada), one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, and Eisai, a Japanese pharmaceutical company, announced that close a late-stage study who was testing a investigational combination therapy for one type of cancer of the head and neck, after an interim analysis showed it failed to prolong patients’ lives.
In particular, it is about the sull phase 3 study LEAP-010 evaluating KEYTRUDA, Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, plus LENVIMA, the orally available multireceptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) discovered by Eisai, as first-line treatment for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and recurrent or metastatic neck.
“Although the PFS results from this study were encouraging, unfortunately the combination did not result in an overall survival benefit for patients,” said Gregory Lubiniecki, vice president, global clinical development at Merck Research Laboratories. “We will apply the lessons learned from this study to help continue to advance research on this combination.”