rival pharmaceutical company Bristol - Myers Squibb is struggling to keep up with its rival Merck & Co. , after the clinical results of its study on immunotherapy drugs Opdivo and colleagues did not show a statistical benefit . While the combination of Bristol - Myers ' two drugs did help lung cancer patients live three months longer on average than just treating with chemotherapy , the meta CheckMate-227 study did not reach the high bar set by Merck 's Keytruda first - aid treatment drug . Bristol - Myers ' relative - risk reduction of 14 % falls short of Keytruda 's 51 % relative risk of death , giving Merck a 49 % share of the metastatic lung cancer market .
US pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb is struggling to keep up with its rival Merck & Co., after the clinical results of its study on immunotherapy drugs Opdivo and Yervoy did not show a statistical benefit. While the combination of Bristol-Myers' two drugs did help lung cancer patients live three months longer on average than just treating with chemotherapy, the 2,200-patient CheckMate-227 study did not reach the high bar set by Merck's Keytruda first-line treatment drug. Bristol-Myers' relative-risk reduction of 14% falls short of Keytruda's 51% reduced risk of death, giving Merck a 60% share of the metastatic lung cancer market.