Drugs giant Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has gained a march on its rivals after US regulators agreed to an accelerated review of the use of one of its immunotherapy products with other drugs as a treatment for lung cancer.
The US Food & Drug Administration has accepted Merck's application to review a combination of its immune system-boosting drug Keytruda with chemotherapy as an initial therapy for the largest cancer market.
The group said the FDA would decide by May 10 whether to approve the Keytruda combination treatment, with the drug already approved for the first-line treatment of lung cancer patients.
Merck presented good results from a mid-stage Phase II trial for its Keytruda-chemotherapy combination at conference in Denmark in October.
Immunotherapy is revolutionising some areas of cancer care, although providing it alone as a treatment only seems to work better than chemotherapy in previously untreated lung cancer patients.