The FDA's approval of Incyte’s Zynyz came as a surprise, its approval marks the eight checkpoint inhibitor to hit the market and the third indicated for metastatic MCC
Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive type of skin cancer that frequently appears as a single, painless, reddish-purple skin nodule on the head, neck and arms in skin exposed to sunlight. MCC tends to grow quickly and has a high rate of metastatic disease, leading to a poor prognosis. The estimated five-year overall survival (OS) rate is 14% in patients with MCC who present with distant metastatic disease3. MCC
impacts less than 1 per 100,000 people in the U.S., but incidence rates are rapidly rising, especially in adults over the age of 65.
Search the drug intelligence database: Synapse, a total of 47 drugs and 128 clinical trials were found for the treatment of Merkel Cell Carcinoma. For this indication, the top three research and development organizations are Incyte Corp, Merck & Co., Inc. and Merck KGaA, the major R&D targets are focused on PD-1、PD-L1 and TLR9. The top three types of drug development for this indication are Monoclonal antibody, Small molecule drug, and Fusion protein.
“Zynyz offers patients and healthcare professionals an additional first-line anti-PD-1 option for patients with metastatic or recurrent locally advanced MCC, which can be a challenging and aggressive disease to treat,” said Hervé Hoppenot, Chief Executive Officer,
Incyte. “Incyte is grateful to the investigators and patients around the world who participated in the POD1UM-201 trial. We continue to study the potential of Zynyz in additional tumor types and in combination with other Incyte pipeline compounds.”
If you’re interested in learning more about this space or keeping track of drug development and clinical trials, sign up for Synapse ( synapse.patsnap.com ), our freemium product offering.