Health Canada Approves Merck's Keytruda As A Monotherapy To Treat MSI-H Or DMMR Solid Tumours

(RTTNews) - Merck & Co Inc. (MRK) on Thursday said that Health Canada has granted approval of Keytruda as a monotherapy to treat patients with unresectable or metastatic microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) solid tumours.

This approval is based on the results from Phase II KEYNOTE-158, KEYNOTE-164, and KEYNOTE-051 studies. The efficacy of Keytruda was investigated in 504 patients with MSI-H or dMMR cancer. In a pooled analysis for adult patients, Keytruda showed an objective response rate (ORR) of 34 percent, including a complete response rate of 11 percent and partial response rate of 23% percent.

Keytruda was first approved in 2014 and is currently used to treat various kinds of cancer across the world including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, advanced renal cell carcinoma, bladder cancer, non-small cell lung carcinoma, etc.