Health and Healthcare
What This Skin Cancer Drug Approval Really Means to Merck
Published:
Last Updated:
Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) has received approval from the FDA to bring its new drug to market. The drug is called Keytruda and it is designed to treat advanced melanoma.
Thursday’s market reaction may be muted, but this is considered a first-in-class and the approval looks very hurried compared to others.
What is said to separate this drug from others in the cancer fighting field is that it uses a protein to boost the immune system to fight against the cancer as opposed to doing all the work itself.
Here is what matters for Merck shareholders: Keytruda is expected to generate around $1.5 billion in 2017 sales, according to a Bloomberg report. Merck’s market cap is around $173 billion, and its expected sales from Thomson Reuters are $42.7 billion in 2014 and $41.4 billion in 2015.
Keytruda’s improvement in survival or disease-related symptoms has not yet been established. Although the drug has been approved, Merck is still conducting ongoing Phase 2 and 3 clinical studies in advanced melanoma to offer more confirmatory evidence for Keytruda. About 36% of patients that were in the trial taking Keytruda suffered serious adverse reactions. The treatment is generally expected to cost $12,500 per patient on a monthly basis or roughly $150,000 for the year.
ALSO READ: Alarming Health Care Spending as Percentage of GDP
If you want to know why this is important, the Skin Cancer Foundation shows just how important the need for more approved skin cancer drugs happens to be. The Skin Cancer Foundation’s figures include some of the following data points:
ALSO READ: Credit Suisse Positive in Some Biotech, But Slams Other Biotech Stocks
Merck closed down by 0.6% at $60.08 on Thursday, but the stock hit a 52-week high of $61.00 earlier in the day. Without the impact of this drug’s weighting on analysts, the consensus price target is $61.83.
Are you ready for retirement? Planning for retirement can be overwhelming, that’s why it could be a good idea to speak to a fiduciary financial advisor about your goals today.
Start by taking this retirement quiz right here from SmartAsset that will match you with up to 3 financial advisors that serve your area and beyond in 5 minutes. Smart Asset is now matching over 50,000 people a month.
Click here now to get started.
Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.