The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted its first accelerated approval for a cancer treatment for solid tumours that have specifically identified genetic features, regardless of the place in the body that the tumour originates. The approval of the Merck-developed checkpoint inhibitor, called Keytruda, was welcomed by the cancer community, however, it was also noted that not enough sequencing is taking place, due to costs, resulting in a "treatment stalemate" meaning few may benefit from targeted therapies until the stalemate is broken and molecular profiling can move forward. In an interview with Nature News, Dr David Sinclair, Director of Cancer Research at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: "We are very pleased to see this breakthrough approved as we believe it will be important if more
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted its first accelerated approval for a cancer treatment for solid tumours that have specifically identified genetic features, regardless of the place in the body that the tumour originates. The approval of the Merck-developed checkpoint inhibitor, called Keytruda, was welcomed by the cancer community, however, it was also noted that not enough sequencing is taking place, due to costs, resulting in a "treatment stalemate" meaning few may benefit from targeted therapies until the stalemate is broken and molecular profiling can move forward. In the US, Keytruda has a list price of $12,500 per patient per month.