Can Sanofi compete in lung cancer? With I-O med cemiplumab, it’s aiming for third
fiercepharma | June 14, 2018
Same or different that’s a big question rattling around the immuno-oncology field, where PD-1 and PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors have put up differing results in clinical trials.The assessment from Sanofi? The PD-1 drugs themselves are essentially equal. It’s the trial designs that make them look different, Joanne Lager, head of oncology development, said in an interview Wednesday.You’d think Sanofi would say just the opposite; its PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, cemiplimab, is up for FDA approval later this year, and it’ll be the sixth in the PD-1/L1 class to hit the market. Carving out a niche for a late-to-market med typically involves emphasizing what’s different ideally superior to its predecessors. Still, science is science. “To date we biologically haven’t been able to show a difference between them,” Lager said. Even robust animal models “aren’t really able to distinguish among them.” “It’s possible that in immuno-oncology, animal models aren’t as good, and the lung cancer studies are maybe unmasking differences among the drugs,” she added. “But that’s less likely to explain the differences in data” than differing trial designs would be.