What was the best new drug of 2014? Forbes‘ Matthew Herper chose two.
Herper laid out a solid case for why two new – and highly similar – cancer drugs are standouts this year: Keytruda from Merck and Opdivo from Bristol-Myers Squibb. He writes:
These two medicines represent a breakthrough in oncology: unlocking the immune system as a weapon to attack tumor cells. The drugs block a “programmed cell death receptor” on the surface of white blood cells. Cancer cells often can use this receptor to prevent the white cells from killing them.’
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These drugs shrank tumors in 20% to 40% of melanoma patients that rejected all other treatments, Herper points out, and in a small percentage of respondents the tumors continued to shrink more more than six months.
But the drugs’ real potential lies beyond melanoma, Herper says, with sales for each projected to approach $3 billion over the next few years. In 2015, information will come out about the pair’s performance in treating non-small cell lung cancer:
Trials of Bristol’s Opdivo in that disease will be closely watched, and studies are ongoing in other cancers, too. Companies like Roche and AstraZeneca are developing their own, similar medicines. There are also other approaches that harness the immune system that are exciting doctors and researchers.
Check out Herper’s full piece here.
