U.S. regulators on Thursday approved the first drug in a new class of cancer medicines that work by stimulating the immune system, a Merck drug developed for treating deadly skin cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration says it granted accelerated approval for the use of Merck & Co Inc’s immuno-oncology drug Keyrtruda, also know as pembrolizumab, as a treatment for patients with advance melanoma, who are no longer responding to other therapies.
The drug is the first in a promising new class of antibody-based drugs that work by taking a brake off the immune system so it can better recognize and attack cancer cells. The drug is designed to help the body’s own immune system fend off cancer by blocking a protein known as Programmed Death receptor (PD-1), or a related target known as PD-L1, used by tumors to evade disease-fighting cells.
“This is the latest in a string of major breakthroughs in melanoma treatment that will galvanize the field of melanoma research and cancer treatment,” Wendy Selig, Melanoma Research Alliance president and CEO, said in a statement.
Read the full, original story: FDA approves Merck immune-stimulating drug for melanoma
