Meanwhile, both companies raced to complete large trials to see if their drugs, which each cost about $150,000 a year, would also benefit patients who had never previously been treated for the most common form of lung cancer.
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Specifically, the top-line results from the Phase 3 trial, which is called Checkmate-026, indicated that Opdivo failed to show progression-free survival in patients.
However, in June, Keytruda succeeded in its trial that was designed a bit differently treating patients with non-small cell lung cancer who hadn’t received any prior treatments.
Peak revenue estimates for the medication’s treatment of lung cancer alone were between $12 billion and $15 billion, TheStreet’s Adam Feuerstein reports.
Merck quickly gained about 10%, while Bristol-Myers fell nearly 20% in pre-market trading after BMS said its Opdivo (nivolumab) did not meet the primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) in untreated, advanced NSCLC patients whose tumors expressed PD-L1 of at least 5%. Rival Merck (NYSE: MRK), on the other hand surged more than 7 percent. Then, it was a new type of immunotherapy in a category of treatments that harness the immune system to fight cancer.
Over the first six months of 2016, sales of Opdivo skyrocketed to over $1.5 billion while Keytruda sales lagged behind, totaling a relatively modest $563 million during the same period. Moreover, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the company’s new drug application (NDA) for MK-1293 today.
Many questions as to why checkpoint drugs don’t work more frequently remain, and one of them has to do with a certain biomarker. The trial explored patients whose tumors had at least 5 percent of cells expressing the protein PD-L1. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co makes up approx 0.13% of Round Table Services’s portfolio.Chesley Taft Associates reduced its stake in BMY by selling 825 shares or 4.39% in the most recent quarter.
At the time, O’Donnell Tormey pointed specifically to how different companies have evaluated PD-L1 expression differently. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Roche Holding AG and AstraZeneca PLC also are studying cancer immunotherapies to treat lung cancer.
Non-small cell lung cancer accounts for about 85% to 90% of all lung-cancer cases.
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Mr. Holford opined that Bristol-Myers has “another shot on goal” in the first-line NSCLC market with its Opdivo-Yervoy combo study, and is expected to present data in early fiscal year 2018 (FY18).
