Cancer drug dead

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Oooooold news. Ovarian cancer drug we were partnering with Endocyte on. Bad for the patients but not a big deal for us. PD-1 is the cancer drug (several types of cancer but melanoma our top priority then lung) that they are banking on saving the company.
 




Anonymous said:
Oooooold news. Ovarian cancer drug we were partnering with Endocyte on. Bad for the patients but not a big deal for us. PD-1 is the cancer drug (several types of cancer but melanoma our top priority then lung) that they are banking on saving the company.
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Bad for the patients that a marginally useful drug is not available? Or bad for Merck that it cannot drain the pockets of another patient segment with a drug of dubious value?
 












Anonymous said:
Bad for the patients that a marginally useful drug is not available? Or bad for Merck that it cannot drain the pockets of another patient segment with a drug of dubious value?
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Sadly, this is the attitude of most at Merck now. My post was eluding to the disappointment that a cancer drug that worked well wasn't what this drug turned out to be.

Merck will come up with a way to bankrupt patients to save their lives so they can pay dividends to shareholders, make no mistake about that, it just won't be with this drug.
 




Anonymous said:
PD-1's chances are 50-50 at best. Even then, it only saves one relatively small sales force from annihilation.
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I spoke to an oncologist about this PD1 Business. He said it looks promising but there could be an issue. He told me that the immune response could cause a negative feedback and render the drug useless. A lot is riding on this but it still is too early.
 




what is most interesting about this post is that everyone in our own company pulls against each other. All those losing jobs come here to just hope that bad luck comes now to oncology reps. I mean really not that it matters if you hope everyone else fails because you have but what about the patients that have the chance to benefit from this therapy. Could your sorry assess at least pull for them?
 




Anonymous said:
what is most interesting about this post is that everyone in our own company pulls against each other. All those losing jobs come here to just hope that bad luck comes now to oncology reps. I mean really not that it matters if you hope everyone else fails because you have but what about the patients that have the chance to benefit from this therapy. Could your sorry assess at least pull for them?
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I see it differently. It is critical thinking something that Merck has not experienced in over 25 years. It is good to have debate. I believe this is a debate and not wishing bad outcomes. In fact Merck has was seems as always asks employees to "Speak Up". Apparently not many are speaking up if they were they would not repeat this mantra. I sincerely hope Merck succeeds in finding cures for cancer. But be aware that all research has pitfalls and it is a good thing to be open minded and critical. This has not happened at Merck for many many years.
 




Anonymous said:
I see it differently. It is critical thinking something that Merck has not experienced in over 25 years. It is good to have debate. I believe this is a debate and not wishing bad outcomes. In fact Merck has was seems as always asks employees to "Speak Up". Apparently not many are speaking up if they were they would not repeat this mantra. I sincerely hope Merck succeeds in finding cures for cancer. But be aware that all research has pitfalls and it is a good thing to be open minded and critical. This has not happened at Merck for many many years.
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I never want to see people lose their jobs. However, when I see and hear how terrible employees are treated, I cannot help wishing the misery would end in happier employment. Companies are supposed to exist for the good of the people, not the other way around. Merck exists for Wall Street. Greed is not good.
 




Anonymous said:
what is most interesting about this post is that everyone in our own company pulls against each other. All those losing jobs come here to just hope that bad luck comes now to oncology reps. I mean really not that it matters if you hope everyone else fails because you have but what about the patients that have the chance to benefit from this therapy. Could your sorry assess at least pull for them?
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"...pull for them"??? WTF? Is anyone "pulling" for me? This sh!thole gets worse and worse every day.
 




Anonymous said:
I see it differently. It is critical thinking something that Merck has not experienced in over 25 years. It is good to have debate. I believe this is a debate and not wishing bad outcomes. In fact Merck has was seems as always asks employees to "Speak Up". Apparently not many are speaking up if they were they would not repeat this mantra. I sincerely hope Merck succeeds in finding cures for cancer. But be aware that all research has pitfalls and it is a good thing to be open minded and critical. This has not happened at Merck for many many years.
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Merck doesn't give a sh!t about what its employees think. Remove your head from your ass.
 




Anonymous said:
PD-1's chances are 50-50 at best. Even then, it only saves one relatively small sales force from annihilation.
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Success with PD-1 is not as clear cut as everybody would like to believe.

Merck could win approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell its drug as a melanoma treatment by this October. Some 69 percent of patients using the drug, called pembrolizumab or MK-3475, survived one year, according to new results of a 411-patient trial presented Monday. It is too soon to know how many will live two years.

But unleashing the immune system can also lead to dangerous side effects, including colitis, a serious inflammation of the colon, as well as problems with the liver, thyroid and pituitary glands.

When Bristol-Myers tested its two drugs together as a treatment for advanced lung cancer, about half of the 46 patients suffered serious side effects, and three of them died from the drugs themselves, according to an abstract of a study being presented here.

The side effects could be a barrier to using the drugs for less advanced stages of disease.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/b...onger-survival-rates-with-immunotherapy.html?
 




Anonymous said:
Success with PD-1 is not as clear cut as everybody would like to believe.

Merck could win approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell its drug as a melanoma treatment by this October. Some 69 percent of patients using the drug, called pembrolizumab or MK-3475, survived one year, according to new results of a 411-patient trial presented Monday. It is too soon to know how many will live two years.

But unleashing the immune system can also lead to dangerous side effects, including colitis, a serious inflammation of the colon, as well as problems with the liver, thyroid and pituitary glands.

When Bristol-Myers tested its two drugs together as a treatment for advanced lung cancer, about half of the 46 patients suffered serious side effects, and three of them died from the drugs themselves, according to an abstract of a study being presented here.

The side effects could be a barrier to using the drugs for less advanced stages of disease.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/b...onger-survival-rates-with-immunotherapy.html?
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The entire company's future is riding on PD1. This makes Merck stock as volatile as a start up biotech.
 












Look for PD1 approval by August 1. Docs clammoring for it. We have come from being 6 months behind BMS to being at least 6 mo ahead. At ASCO presentations, our drug had a much better side effect profile than the BMS drug.

This will be a HUGE success with great results for patients. Saving lives is the bottom line here, and this drug does that.
 




Anonymous said:
"...pull for them"??? WTF? Is anyone "pulling" for me? This sh!thole gets worse and worse every day.
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this is the problem !! What about ME !!!!! who cares about the patient or all of the others. This egocentric mentality is ruining our company and our country !! Get off your lazy butt you entitled piece of crap and take care of YOURSELF.
 




Anonymous said:
Look for PD1 approval by August 1. Docs clammoring for it. We have come from being 6 months behind BMS to being at least 6 mo ahead. At ASCO presentations, our drug had a much better side effect profile than the BMS drug.

This will be a HUGE success with great results for patients. Saving lives is the bottom line here, and this drug does that.
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Nope - By mid July!! Eat that!
 




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