Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • STAT

    Opinion: Combination immunotherapy may have failed in the Incyte/Merck trial, but it’s here to stay

    Greater reliance on precision medicine and biomarkers will improve the testing of combination immunotherapy for cancer.
    by Raymond J. Tesi Apr 23, 2018 4 minutes
    Source: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

    The failure of Incyte’s Phase 3 clinical trial of epacadostat combined with Keytruda, Merck’s breakthrough checkpoint inhibitor, for people newly diagnosed with melanoma was a big disappointment to the companies, the pharmaceutical industry, and patients. This negative trial prompted some to question whether combination immunotherapies have a future. Not me. I believe that immunotherapy and combination therapy are here to stay.

    The questions we should be asking are what went wrong here (and with similar failures), and how do we fix it?

    The answers lie with precision medicine and biomarkers.

    Before the advent of precision medicine, doctors and clinical

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from STAT

    STAT2 min read
    STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re Reading About FDA Dithering On Pharma Patents, WHO Pandemic Talks, And More
    When it comes to a crucial controversy over patents for drug-and-device combination products, the FDA has been MIA.
    STAT1 min read
    STAT+: Element Biosciences, An Illumina Rival, On Its Genomics Ambitions — And Why It Hasn’t Gone Public
    Element Biosciences' modest growth comes at a time when some other players are struggling in a sequencer market dominated by Illumina.
    STAT2 min read
    STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re Reading About A Boy Dying In Pfizer Trial; AstraZeneca Yanking Covid Shot, And More
    A young boy died in a clinical trial for an experimental Pfizer gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, about a year after receiving the therapy.

    Related Books & Audiobooks