Global Press Release Centre

MSD, known as Merck (NYSE:MRK) in the United States and Canada, today announced new findings from the KEYNOTE-028 Phase 1b study, the clinical trial investigating the use of the company’s anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) in multiple, difficult-to-treat cancers. Data from this trial, to be presented at the European Cancer Congress (ECC) in Vienna, Austria, Sept. 25-29, include the first-time findings for KEYTRUDA in two gastrointestinal cancers, advanced anal cancer and advanced biliary tract cancer, and add to MSD’s growing body of clinical data for KEYTRUDA.

MSD, known as Merck (NYSE:MRK) in the United States and Canada, today announced the first-time presentation of findings investigating the use of KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab), the company’s anti-PD-1 therapy, as a monotherapy in patients with advanced unresectable nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) – a type of head and neck cancer – whose tumors express PD-L1 (≥1% of cells in tumor nests or PD-L1+ bands in stroma). Data were from a Phase 1b study (KEYNOTE-028) and showed an overall response rate (ORR) (confirmed and unconfirmed) of 22.2 percent (95% CI, 8.6-42.3) in evaluable patients (n=27) who were treated with KEYTRUDA. Results were presented in an oral session by Dr. Chiun Hsu, National Taiwan University Hospital, at the European Cancer Congress (ECC) in Vienna (Abstract #2801).