Boston, MA 09/05/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s tumor fighting drug, pembrolizumab, aimed at patients suffering from advanced melanoma and who failed to respond to other therapies, has received FDA approval.
The Food and Drug Administration approved of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)’s much-awaited drug for the treatment in an advanced stage of skin cancer, melanoma, yesterday. The drug was approved after a rapid review of data obtained from an early stage of human trial. Medical community does not usually allow such early stages of human trial.
The target patients for the drug include those who failed to respond satisfactorily for other treatments previously. Some of the other drugs that failed to treat the disease at earlier instances include Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY) drug Yervoy. The drug introduces a new class of drugs for cancer therapy that would fight tumors by unleashing the body’s immune system against them. The new medicine class is speculated to bring about a transformation in cancer therapies while creating a whole new market for pharmaceutical companies.
Pembrolizumab is the first of its kind drug, which is essentially a PD-1 inhibitor, to be brought in the U.S. market. Other pharmaceutical companies like Bristol-Myers and Roche Holding Ltd. (ADR) (OCTMKTS:RHHBY) have also experimented on drugs in this series. Doctors suggest that PD-1 targeting drugs induce comparatively high rates of tumor shrinkage. They say that these drugs extend average survival beyond levels further than clinical norms. Researchers also support the drug saying that the side effects linked to the drugs are also controllable.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) seeks to market the skin cancer treating drug under the name Keytruda, and it would be available in the form of an infused drug. The company has priced one-year treatment with the drug at $150,000, but will charge $12,500 per patient per month from parties that would purchase the drug for many patients.
