00:00 Speaker A
Drug maker Merk releasing phase three data for its blockbuster cancer treatment drug. From our bring you Yahoo Finance Senior Health Reporter, Anjalee Khemlani. So talk to us about what this data showed.
00:12 Anjalee Khemlani
Yeah, so this data is for its Phase three for its injectable Keytruda. Now, we know Keytruda and Merk go together. It’s one of their biggest selling drugs, really a significant contributor to their revenue, almost 30 billion last year alone. And so what what Merk is trying to do is test a form of the drug in an injection form. Think GLP ones, injectables. And that’s not new. We’ve seen other companies do that like Roche and Bristol Myers Squibb, but we’re looking at is Merk getting this product out there in tandem with chemotherapy. Some of the results showed that it is in a specific type of lung cancer, cuts the treatment time in by almost 50% and has the same efficacy as infusion or an IV and chemotherapy. Now, the FDA does have a timeline to decide on whether or not to approve of this drug and that is by September 23rd. Going back to what this could all mean for Merk, number one, we know that the company has a patent cliff for Keytruda that is in 2028. So it could open up longitudinal activity for this company, give them a little bit of a runway for the drug to stay as a profitable piece even though it could cost less because it’s an injectable, not an IV. On top of that, there’s questions about whether or not this could be helpful with Medicare price negotiations. We know that that has been a topic of interest for a lot of companies looking to maybe see this as a different product, so it doesn’t fall under the original product when it goes off patent. So that is one other thing to look for. So analysts are, you know, a little bit of a view. The company has had a few pressure points, some headwinds in the last several months, including Gardasil slowdown in China, so that’s been weighing on the stock. And so this came as a bit of good expected, but wanted news.
03:33 Speaker A
And expected I assume is why the stock is not getting a pop today because this was broadly in line, perhaps if they actually go through and get that FDA approval, that then would be the catalyst.
03:52 Anjalee Khemlani
And an even bigger catalyst is if they get it away from that negotiation, because that is expected for 2026. So Keytruda is likely going to be on the next list.
04:14 Speaker A
All right. Thank you, Andre.