Merck and Eisai to stop Keytruda plus Lenvima trial in head and neck cancer after disappointing interim results

Mer­ck and Ei­sai an­nounced Fri­day morn­ing that they plan to close a Phase III study of the com­bi­na­tion of Keytru­da and Ei­sai’s ty­ro­sine ki­nase in­hibitor Lenvi­ma in head and neck squa­mous cell car­ci­no­ma.

The com­pa­nies said the de­ci­sion came af­ter a sec­ond in­ter­im analy­sis in which the com­bo did not im­prove over­all sur­vival (OS) com­pared to Keytru­da and place­bo in pa­tients whose tu­mors ex­press PD-L1. Since the study was not like­ly to meet its pri­ma­ry OS end­point, the two com­pa­nies de­cid­ed to stop it.

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