Positive Opinion Granted for Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma Based on Significant Progression-Free Survival (PFS), Overall Survival (OS) and Objective Response Rate (ORR) Benefit Compared to Sunitinib in CLEAR/KEYNOTE-581 Trial
Positive Opinion Granted for Advanced Endometrial Carcinoma Based on Significant OS and PFS Benefit Compared to Chemotherapy in KEYNOTE-775/Study 309 Trial
KENILWORTH, N.J. & TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Eisai today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency has adopted positive opinions recommending approval of the combination of KEYTRUDA, Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, plus LENVIMA (marketed as KISPLYX® in the European Union [EU] for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma [RCC]), the orally available multiple receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor discovered by Eisai, for two different indications. One positive opinion is for the first-line treatment of adult patients with advanced RCC, and the other is for the treatment of adult patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma (EC) who have disease progression on or following prior treatment with a platinum-containing therapy in any setting and are not candidates for curative surgery or radiation. Decisions on the CHMP’s recommendations will be given by the European Commission for marketing authorization in the EU, and are expected in the fourth quarter of 2021. If approved, this would be the first combination of an anti-PD-1 therapy with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for the treatment of two different types of cancer in the EU.
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The positive CHMP opinions are based on data from two pivotal Phase 3 trials: CLEAR (Study 307)/KEYNOTE-581 evaluating the combination in adult patients with advanced RCC and KEYNOTE-775/Study 309 evaluating the combination in certain patients with advanced EC.
In CLEAR/KEYNOTE-581, KEYTRUDA plus LENVIMA demonstrated statistically significant improvements versus sunitinib in the efficacy outcome measures of overall survival (OS), reducing the risk of death by 34% (HR=0.66 [95% CI, 0.49-0.88]; p=0.0049) versus sunitinib, and progression-free survival (PFS), reducing the risk of disease progression or death by 61% (HR=0.39 [95% CI, 0.32-0.49]; p