, Columnist
Incyte Cancer Drug Flop Is Costly and Likely to Be Duplicated
Companies fear ceding a sales-expanding breakthrough to rivals, so they are pursuing the same elusive combination cancer strategy.
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A failed drug trial can derail a company or ruin a fund's year, but the flop on Friday of a heavily scrutinized trial of Incyte Corp.'s epacadostat and Merck & Co. Inc.'s blockbuster Keytruda in melanoma patients could have far broader implications.
This trial was one of the first key tests of an idea that has driven billions of dollars worth of research spending -- that the effectiveness of so-called PD-1/L1 cancer drugs like Keytruda and Bristol-Myers Squibb & Co.'s Opdivo could be bolstered with the addition of other drugs. PD-1/L1 drugs help the immune system recognize tumors and can be highly effective -- but only in a subset of cancers and patients.