As Merck Diversifies Beyond Keytruda, It Will Lean On Its Oncology Leadership Position

Merck & Co., Inc. helped reshape the way that many cancer patients are treated by bringing forward an immunotherapy that improved survival and reduced cancer recurrence across multiple aggressive tumor types. Merck Research Laboratories president Dean Li told Scrip that the company will continue to build on the oncology leadership position that it has gained through the development of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as it prepares for loss of exclusivity for the PD-1 inhibitor in 2028.

Keytruda is not just the top-selling therapy in the PD-1/L1 class, but Merck’s biggest product by a wide margin. Its $5.4bn in third quarter 2022 sales was more than a third of the company’s $15bn in Q3 revenue and more than double the sales of Merck’s second-biggest seller, the HPV vaccine Gardasil. That’s why, with just five more years until the introduction of Keytruda biosimilars, pressure is mounting for Li’s research and development team to deliver new products