Keytruda Chemo combo approved despite more deaths and no survival benefit

Last night the FDA granted accelerated approval for Merck’s Keytruda to be used in combination with pemetrexed and carboplatin chemo for 1st line non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer, which makes up 75% of NSCLC. . Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials (phase III, KEYNOTE 189). Hover the FDA label also states more patients died on the chemo combo arm than chemo alone...