KENILWORTH, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck (NYSE:MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced updated longer-term overall survival (OS) data from KEYNOTE-006, the phase 3 study evaluating KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab), the company’s anti-PD-1 therapy, in patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma. The data showed sustained superior survival outcomes for patients receiving KEYTRUDA (monotherapy) compared to ipilimumab in patients who were treatment-naïve or received one prior line of therapy for the treatment of advanced melanoma. The survival benefit was sustained in patients who completed the planned two years of treatment with KEYTRUDA. These data will be presented in an oral session at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago on Sunday, June 4, from 9:12 to 9:24 a.m. CDT (Location: Arie Crown Theater) (Abstract #9504).
In the longer-term findings to be presented, treatment with KEYTRUDA was associated with a 30 percent improvement in survival: 50 percent of patients in the KEYTRUDA group (based on a pooled analysis of the two doses studied: 10 mg/kg every two weeks or 10 mg/kg every three weeks; n=556) were alive nearly three years (33.9 months) after starting treatment with KEYTRUDA, compared to 39 percent of patients in the ipilimumab group (n=278) (HR: 0.70 [95% CI, 0.58-0.86]). In addition, KEYTRUDA nearly doubled the rate of progression-free survival (PFS) at 33.9 months: 31 percent of patients in the KEYTRUDA group were alive and their disease had not progressed, compared to 14 percent of patients in the ipilimumab group.
“KEYTRUDA continues to demonstrate improved overall survival compared to ipilimumab, and the findings to be presented at ASCO reinforce the benefit of KEYTRUDA in the treatment of advanced melanoma,” said Dr. Roger Dansey, senior vice president and therapeutic area head, oncology late-stage development, Merck Research Laboratories.
