Merck, Eisai’s combination drug fails in late-stage trial for esophageal cancer

(Reuters) -Merck and Japan-based Eisai said on Friday a combination of their therapies failed to extend the lives of patients with a type of esophageal cancer in a late-stage trial.

The trial was studying U.S. drugmaker Merck’s blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda and Eisai’s Lenvima, in combination with chemotherapy, as a first-line treatment for patients with a type of gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.

The pairing had previously failed in trials studying it for other types of lung cancer, head and neck and skin cancer as well.

In an interim analysis, patients treated with Keytruda plus Lenvima, in combination with chemotherapy, showed an improvement in survival without the progression of the disease, one of the main goals of the late-stage trial.

But as the study continued, the final analysis showed it failed to meet the other main goal of overall survival.

Merck’s Keytruda belongs to a class of medicines called PD-1 inhibitors, which work by increasing the ability of the body’s immune system to help detect and fight tumor cells.

Eisai’s Lenvima is a kinase inhibitor, which blocks certain proteins from helping cancer cells grow and divide.

Their combination is approved in the U.S., the EU, Japan and other countries for the treatment of a type of kidney cancer, known as advanced renal cell carcinoma, and certain types of advanced endometrial carcinoma — a type of uterine cancer.

The safety profile of the combination was consistent with that observed in previous studies, the companies said, adding that a full evaluation of the study was ongoing.

Merck and Eisai will present these results at an upcoming medical meeting. The results do not affect the current approved indications or other ongoing trials.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)