It's been a bit quiet huh. Not sure I'm the only one who has...

It's been a bit quiet huh. Not sure I'm the only one who has missed this but there was a keynote from Merck on a combination expansion study using Keytruda + Yervoy for advanced melanoma. I certainly missed it since it's somewhat relevant given that Viralytics has already combined Yervoy with Cavatak in its MITCI study and now we're eagerly waiting for Keytruda + Cavatak in the Part B STORM study.

See Pembrolizumab (pembro) plus ipilimumab (ipi) for advanced melanoma: Results of the KEYNOTE-029 expansion cohort. Notably, 41 of the 107 (38%) patients experienced a grade 3-4 drug-related adverse event. It sounds almost ad nauseam but this result further supports Cavatak's superior safety profile at least when compared to its MITCI results (i.e. 9%).

I think it's been mentioned earlier in a post but Merck should be extremely focused on, if not already, the upcoming results for Part B given that Cavatak + Yervoy improved the overall combination safety over a Keytruda + Yervoy combination. It's just insane how many mono- and combination studies they have going on which I wonder how much exposure Cavatak has given the above, amongst the sea of clinical trials.

For ease - I've adapted the MITCI results and tried filling in the Keynote-029 results for comparison in red. If this has been mentioned - my apologies. I only saw looked up these results today...


Source: Adapted from Viralytics - Phase 1b: MITCI study AACR poster (2016).