Keytruda

[Updated May 21, 2024.] 2023 may not go down as the brightest year for the pharma sector, but the entry of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic (semaglutide) into the ranks of top-selling drugs like Keytruda, Dupixent, and Eliquis signals a new era in the treatment of metabolic disease. Novo Nordisk’s sales jumped by more than one-third in…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the best-selling pharmaceuticals, leading to shifts in the list with Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty surpassing AbbVie’s Humira for the No. 1 spot in 2021. That momentum continued in 2022, with Pfizer and BioNTech jointly raking in $59.1 billion in revenue from the sales of the COVID-19…

Drug sales in 2021 hit record heights, with a handful of pharmaceutical companies handsomely rewarded for creating COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. This roundup of best-selling pharmaceuticals in 2021 highlighted a banner year for the industry. Pfizer alone raked in $36.9 billion in sales from the Comirnaty vaccine it developed jointly with BioNTech. Demand for the…

Merck (NYSE:MRK) has agreed to acquire the biopharma Acceleron Pharma (NSDQ:XLRN) for $180 per share in cash, bringing the purchase price to roughly $11.5 billion. The companies expect the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2021. Cambridge, Massachusetts–based Acceleron specializes in developing drugs that aim to balance transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta, which plays…

Merck & Co. (NSDQ:MRNA) scientists have explored fighting cancer by way of the STING (stimulator of interferon genes)-controlled innate immune pathway. Now, the company has published research in Advanced Therapeutics detailing a preclinical study with its partner Vesselon Inc. that reported impressive pharmacokinetics results related to MSA-1, a STING agonist. The researchers found that low…

Immunotherapy-specialist Hookipa Pharma (NSDQ:HOOK) has announced a clinical collaboration and supply agreement with Merck (NYSE:MRK). Hookipa will test its immunotherapeutic HB-200 in conjunction with Merck’s blockbuster anti-PD-1 therapy, Keytruda (pembrolizumab), as first-line treatment for patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Last year, Merck raked in $14.5 billion in sales revenue from Keytruda.…

The International Journal of Surgery Case Reports has published a case study on the use of the humanized antibody Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and tavokinogene telseplasmid (TAVO) from OncoSec (NSDQ:ONCS) for treating metastatic melanoma. The study involved a patient with stage IIB, pT3b melanoma who initially underwent tumor resection but experienced regional recurrence and later disease progression […]