Merus drug, with immunotherapy, boosts tumor response in patients with head and neck cancer

Merus said Tuesday that the combination of its experimental drug petosemtamab with the checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda shrank tumors in 62% of patients with head and neck cancer, according to an interim analysis of an ongoing mid-stage clinical trial.

The new efficacy results, derived from a larger number of patients, look similar to an initial disclosure made last week that triggered a 36% increase in Merus’ stock price.

But the Dutch drugmaker on Tuesday withheld additional information from the study related to the safety and durability of petosemtamab’s tumor responses, pending presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology on June 3.

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