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2 of top 10 predictions for the best-selling drugs of 2022

4. Keytruda — $19.5 billionThe PD-1 inhibitor, the first-in-class drug to be approved by the FDA a few months before Opdivo, hit the pharma world by storm and quickly became a mega blockbuster for Merck. And that mega blockbuster designation is still going strong, with numerous indications being approved over the years and tests still ongoing for it both as a monotherapy and as a combination therapy.

9. Opdivo — $8.9 billionNext, we’ve got BMS’s mega blockbuster PD-1 inhibitor Opdivo. Just like Merck, the pharma is also moving its PD-1 inhibitor into earlier lines of treatment — escalating an early-stage cancer showdown between the two pharmas. Back in November, Bristol Myers announced that combining Opdivo and chemo in the neoadjuvant setting before surgery cut the risk of recurrence or death in patients with stage IB to IIIA NSCLC over pre-surgery chemo alone.

BMS has some big plans over the next few years — the pharma announced at JPM22 that they would leverage $45-50 billion for deal making over the next three years,