Immunotherapy: Big Pharma’s Seductive Embrace

The emergence of Merck & Co. Inc.’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab), granted an accelerated FDA approval in September 2014 based on data from more than 400 patients in an initial Phase I study started in early 2011, makes a compelling argument for Big Pharmas with the resources to rapidly develop fast followers to enter the race to commercialize cancer immunotherapies. Companies are doing just that, in many cases setting up combination trials early in clinical development, either with additional immunotherapies or with targeted agents.

Merck followed in the footsteps of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., whose Yervoy (ipilimumab), approved in 2011, validated decades of effort...