Tremelimumab, take three

Three years after Pfizer Inc. discontinued development of tremelimumab for melanoma, AstraZeneca plc's MedImmune LLC unit has in-licensed the mAb. Poor design may have tripped up Pfizer's Phase III, but given that two new melanoma drugs have entered the market since then, MedImmune would have to do more than run a better study to advance the mAb for the indication.

Last week, MedImmune received worldwide rights to develop and commercialize the mAb against CTLA-4. Pfizer retained rights for undisclosed combination therapies...