Merck buys another biotech; Keytruda wins FDA nod for head, neck cancer

By PharmaCompass

2019-06-13

Impressions: 99 Article

Last month, a day before its IPO, Merck had announced it has purchased Peloton Therapeutics for US$ 2.2 billion in cash and additional payments. And this week, there is news that Merck has struck a US$ 773 million deal to buy Tilos Therapeutics. The takeover will give Merck control over a pipeline of cancer, fibrosis and autoimmune programs targeting the latent TGFβ complex (a multifunctional signaling molecule that plays a role in a wide array of cellular processes).

“Tilos has developed a compelling portfolio of candidates that employ a novel approach to modulating the potent signaling molecule TGFβ by binding to latency-associated peptide, with potential applications across a range of disease indications,” Dean Li, senior vice president at Merck, said in a statement.

While both these deals add intriguing assets that bolster Merck’s pipeline, they don’t address Merck’s over-reliance on the immune-boosting cancer blockbuster Keytruda.

That said, Keytruda’s future looks bright, as the blockbuster won FDA approval to treat head and neck cancer. Keytruda, a type of immunotherapy called a PD-1 inhibitor, is already an approved treatment for several forms of cancer, including lung and skin cancers. Keytruda brought in revenue of US$ 7.17 billion for Merck in 2018.

According to Merck, Keytruda has been approved for use as a monotherapy, as well as in combination with chemotherapy, to treat previously untreated patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

The approval is based on results from a late-stage trial, where Keytruda showed a significant improvement in overall survival in cancer patients.

Head and neck cancer includes tumors in the mouth, tongue, nose, sinuses, throat and lymph nodes in the neck. Merck estimates that there will be more than 65,000 new cases of head and neck cancer diagnosed in 2019 in the United States.

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