Merck’s Broad Oncology Pipeline to Be Highlighted at ESMO 2018 Congress

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced that new data from Merck’s broad oncology portfolio and robust early pipeline will be presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress in Munich, Germany from October 19-23. More than 100 abstracts involving Merck medicines – including eight late-breaking abstracts – across more than 15 tumor types have been accepted. Additionally, pivotal Phase 3 data evaluating anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA as a first-line treatment in patients with recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) from the KEYNOTE-048 trial (Abstract #LBA8_PR) and the PARP inhibitor LYNPARZA (in collaboration with AstraZeneca) as maintenance therapy in newly diagnosed patients with BRCA-mutated (BRCAm) advanced ovarian cancer who are in complete or partial response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy from the SOLO-1 trial (Abstract #LBA7_PR) are to be presented in the ESMO Presidential Symposium and featured in the official ESMO Press Program.

“At Merck, our unwavering commitment to R&D has permitted us to establish an extraordinarily broad discovery research program in oncology,” said Dr Roger M. Perlmutter, president, Merck Research Laboratories. “The data at ESMO are reflective of our focus on discovering important new targets and developing novel medicines – including KEYTRUDA and LYNPARZA – with the potential to set new treatment standards across multiple tumor types.” Key abstracts from Merck’s broad pipeline to be presented at ESMO include:

• First presentation of overall survival (OS) data from the pivotal Phase 3 KEYNOTE-048 trial investigating KEYTRUDA for the first-line treatment of recurrent or metastatic HNSCC (Abstract #LBA8_PR).
• First-time findings from the Phase 2 KEYNOTE-057 trial evaluating KEYTRUDA monotherapy in the treatment of advanced non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) (Abstract 864O).
• First-time data from the pivotal Phase 3 SOLO-1 trial investigating LYNPARZA as maintenance therapy in newly diagnosed patients with BRCAm advanced ovarian cancer who are in complete or partial response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy (Abstract LBA7_PR). As previously announced, SOLO-1 met its primary endpoint, showing a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) compared to placebo in these patients.

First presentation of Phase 1 clinical data for MK-1454, Merck’s investigational stimulator of interferon genes (STING) agonist, as monotherapy and in combination with KEYTRUDA, for the treatment of patients with advanced solid tumors or lymphomas (Abstract #LBA15). – Medical Buyer Bureau