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Pictured: Merck Research Laboratories in South San Francisco, California/iStock, hapabapa Merck on Thursday announced that its blockbuster PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab) fell short of its dual primary endpoints in the Phase III KEYLYNK-006 trial, unable to significantly improve survival outcomes in specific patients with metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. KEYLYNK-006 is a randomized, open-label and two-phase study that enrolled more than 670 patients who were treated with Keytruda plus chemotherapy with pemetrexed and carboplatin or cisplatin. Participants were then randomly given maintenance therapy with either Keytruda plus AstraZeneca’s PARP inhibitor Lynparza (olaparib) or Keytruda plus chemotherapy. Without providing specific data Thursday, Merck disclosed that patients in the Keytruda-Lynparza arm did not see significantly better overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS)—KEYLYNK-006’s dual primary endpoints—compared with chemotherapy controls. The study focused on metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who did not carry EGFR, ALK or ROS1 genomic tumor aberrations. KEYLYNK-006 assessed the efficacy and safety of the Keytruda-Lynparza regimen as a first-line treatment option in these patients. Gregory Lubiniecki, vice president of global clinical development at Merck Research Laboratories, in a statement said that these results “are an important reminder of how challenging it may be to treat” patients with metastatic non-squamous NSCLC. In terms of safety, the profiles for Keytruda and Lynparza were consistent with what had been previously documented in other trials. A complete analysis of data from KEYLYNK-006 is ongoing, according to Merck. The company will share its findings with the scientific community in the future. Thursday’s disappointing readout continues Keytruda’s losing streak in NSCLC. In December 2023, the pharma reported back-to-back failures for its PD-1 inhibitor in the indication. In the Phase II KeyVibe-002 trial, Merck used Keytruda combined vibostolimab—an anti-TIGIT antibody—for the treatment of metastatic NSCLC patients whose disease had progressed after immunotherapy and platinum-doublet chemotherapy. Results showed that, with or without docetaxel, the investigational regimen yielded no significant benefits on patients’ PFS and OS. Merck at the time also announced that Keytruda failed its KEYLYNK-008 trial which, as in the case of KEYLYNK-006, combined the PD-1 inhibitor with Lynparza. During a planned interim analysis, an independent data monitoring committee found that the investigational regimen did not significantly improve OS in metastatic squamous NSCLC patients, forcing the pharma to discontinue the study. Keytruda is a humanized monoclonal antibody that blocks the PD-1 signaling, which in turn prevents cancer cells from evading the body’s innate anti-cancer immune response. The therapy was first approved in 2014 for advanced melanoma, but has since picked up a plethora of other oncology indications and has become a fundamental cancer therapy. Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. Reach out to him on LinkedIn or email him at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.

HOLON, Israel, March 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN) (TASE: CGEN) a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in computational target discovery, today announced that it has been selected to give two oral presentations at the Keystone Symposium on Cancer Immunotherapy: Beyond Immune Checkpoint Blockade and Overcoming Resistance, taking place March 17-21, 2024, in Whistler, Canada. "We are delighted to be selected to give two oral presentations at the upcoming Keystone Symposium on Cancer Immunotherapy this year," said Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President, and CEO of Compugen. "We believe our selection to present at a Keystone Symposium reflects the significant discovery, research and development taking place at Compugen as we are working to advance our vision to transform patient lives by developing first-in class therapeutics based on our computational target discovery platform." The abstracts are available on the publication section of Compugen's website . The presentations and posters will be made available on , on the day of presentation. About Compugen Compugen is a clinical-stage therapeutic discovery and development company utilizing its broadly applicable predictive computational discovery capabilities to identify new drug targets and biological pathways for developing cancer immunotherapies. Compugen has developed two proprietary product candidates: COM701, a potential first-in-class anti-PVRIG antibody and COM902, a potential best-in-class antibody targeting TIGIT for the treatment of solid tumors. Compugen also has a clinical stage partnered program, rilvegostomig (previously AZD2936), a PD-1/TIGIT bispecific antibody where the TIGIT component is derived from Compugen's clinical stage anti-TIGIT antibody, COM902, in Phase 3 development by AstraZeneca through a license agreement for the development of bispecific and multispecific antibodies. In addition, Compugen's therapeutic pipeline of early-stage immuno-oncology programs consists of programs aiming to address various mechanisms of immune resistance, of which the most advanced program, in IND enabling studies is COM503, which is licensed to Gilead. COM503 is a potential first-in-class, high affinity antibody which blocks the interaction between IL-18 binding protein and IL-18, thereby freeing natural IL-18 in the tumor microenvironment to inhibit cancer growth. Compugen is headquartered in Israel, with offices in San Francisco, CA. Compugen's shares are listed on Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CGEN. Company contact: Yvonne Naughton, Ph.D. Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Email: ir@cgen.com Tel: +1 (628) 241-0071 View original content: SOURCE Compugen Ltd. Company Codes: TelAviv:CGEN, Berlin:CW9, Dusseldorf:CW9, NASDAQ-NMS:CGEN