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ARTICLE | Clinical News

Keytruda fails Phase III SCCHN trial

July 27, 2017 11:51 PM UTC

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) reported data from the Phase III KEYNOTE-040 trial in 495 patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) who were previously treated with 1-2 platinum-containing systemic regimens showing that 200 mg IV Keytruda pembrolizumab (MK-3475) every 3 weeks missed the primary endpoint of improving overall survival (OS) vs. standard treatment with methotrexate, docetaxel or cetuximab (HR=0.82, 95% CI: 0.67, 1.01, one-sided p=0.03).

Secondary endpoints in the trial include progression-free survival (PFS) and objective response rate (ORR)...