Roche’s Tecentriq hits mark in squamous NSCLC – how loud are Merck & Co.’s footsteps?

Roche’s Tecentriq (atezolizumab) plus chemotherapy extended progression-free survival (PFS) as front-line therapy in the Phase III IMpower131 trial in squamous non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), making it the first anti-PD-(L)1 mAb to show efficacy in this less appreciated but still massive segment of lung cancer. The clock is ticking to translate the clinical success into commercial riches, however, as Merck & Co. is expected to report results from a similar pivotal study of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) this year.

To provide FirstWord readers with rapid feedback on the IMpower131 results and their impact on prescribing habits in squamous NSCLC, we are hosting an expert call with a key opinion leader (KOL) on March 23.

Key topics that will be discussed during the call include, among other things… how are newly diagnosed patients with advanced squamous NSCLC treated now and will that change based on the top-line IMpower131 readout; what magnitude of PFS benefit would you consider meaningful and how optimistic are you that Tecentriq will achieve it; are you disappointed that an overall survival (OS) advantage has not been observed yet, and how crucial will this be for changing prescribing habits; are your expectations any higher or lower for Keytruda in the Phase III Keynote-407 study; assuming IMpower131 and Keynote-407 return similar data, will Keytruda’s broader use in a number of tumour types, including non-squamous NSCLC, give it a leg up from a commercial perspective; Keytruda monotherapy performed well in a subset of patients in the Keynote-024 trial with squamous NSCLC, including an especially favourable hazard ratio in those with high PD-L1 expression – thus could use of Tecentriq (as add-on to chemotherapy) be significantly curtailed if its benefit in IMpower131 is driven by PD-L1 high expressers?

Ask the expert!

Furthermore, we invite FirstWord Pharma readers to submit their own questions for consideration. Please click here to do so. We can't guarantee that all questions submitted will be asked due to time constraints, but we will do our utmost to cover the important issues relating to the battle among immuno-oncology (I/O) drugs for control of the squamous NSCLC space.

We endeavour to provide feedback from KOLs as quickly as possible. Interview content will be published for FirstWord Pharma PLUS subscribers to read. To be notified when the interview content is available please click here.

To ensure access to all KOL Views content, click here to upgrade your FirstWord Pharma service or contact us to discuss your market intelligence needs.

As always, FirstWord would very much like to receive your feedback and suggestions.

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