In two-man race with Novartis, Merck scores first regulatory approval for targeted lung cancer drug

In the two-man race to develop a new inhibitor for an aggressive form of lung cancer, Merck KGaA has won the first regulatory approval.

Japan became the first country to approve the pharma giant’s MET inhibitor tepotinib, the first targeted pill for the 3 to 4% of non-small lung cancer patients with a MET mutation. In a Phase II study published last year in Clinical Oncology, just over half of the 89 patients responded to the treatment. The response lasted for a median of 9.8 months.