Keytruda could get patient-friendly 6 week dosing schedule in EU

US-based Merck & Co is putting further pressure on its arch-rival Bristol-Myers Squibb with a potential new six-week dosing schedule for some European patients taking its Keytruda (pembrolizumab) cancer immunotherapy. Late last week the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use  (CHMP) regulatory committee recommended the more patient-friendly dosing schedule, doubling the time between infusions for cancers where Keytruda is used as monotherapy. Known as Merck, Sharp, and Dohme outside the US, the company said the new schedule would involve an intravenous infusion over 30 minutes. In the EU, Keytruda is approved as monotherapy for eight indications across five tumor types. These include patients with advanced melanoma, patients with stage III melanoma who have had a resection, certain patients with untreated and previously treated non-small cell lung cancer, classical Hodgkin lymphoma, bladder cancer, and head and neck cancer.