Roche claims win in the $12B early-stage checkpoint raceThe...

Roche claims win in the $12B early-stage checkpoint race

The Swiss pharma announced Monday that, in a Phase III trial of early-stage lung cancer patients, those who received the PD-1 blocker Tecentriq lived longer without their disease returning than patients who received chemotherapy did.
The study looked at non-small cell lung cancer patients who had already undergone surgery to remove their tumor.
Roche said the trial met the primary endpoints of disease-free survival, with patients who had tumors with high expression of PD-L1 performing particularly well.
Roche joins Bristol Myers Squibb with the second big success for lung cancer. Bristol Myers announced in October that, when given before surgery, Opdivo improved non-small cell lung cancer patients’ odds of showing no evidence of cancer compared with those who received chemotherapy alone.

It’s a pair of successes for two drug makers that have spent years trailing Merck’s Keytruda.

Add efti to further improve patient outcomes - for 'all-comer' PD-L1 expression.
We must be on the radar of BMS and Roche.....