Keytruda Cements Cervical Cancer Leadership With First-Line Nod

The US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Merck & Co., Inc.’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as a first-line treatment for persistent, recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer makes the PD-1 inhibitor the first new drug in that setting in nearly a decade and raises the possibility of future combination with Seagen Inc. ’s tissue factor-targeting antibody-drug conjugate Tivdak (tisotumab vedotin).

The FDA approved Keytruda combined with chemotherapy, with or without Roche Holding AG’s Avastin (bevacizumab), in first-line cervical cancer on 13 October, among patients whose cancers express PD-L1 with...