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Japan Delays Keytruda Pricing Amid PD-1 Cost Concerns

 
• By Ian Haydock

Regulatory authorities in Japan have put back the granting of a reimbursement price to Keytruda under the national health insurance system amid rising worries over the cost of new cancer immunotherapies, delaying the launch of the product for now.

Japanese flag

Japan has postponed the price listing and inclusion in the national health insurance reimbursement tariff of Merck Sharp & Dohme Ltd.'s Keytruda (pembrolizumab), putting back for the time being the launch of the product in its first local indication of metastatic melanoma.

The PD-1-targeting antibody was approved for melanoma in Japan in September, and will provide the first real rival to

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