
Roche on Wednesday said a two-drug combination that includes a novel but still experimental checkpoint-blocking immunotherapy significantly delayed tumor progression in a mid-stage study of non-small cell lung cancer patients.
Reaction to the results might be muted, however, because the new combination treatment — tiragolumab plus Tecentriq — only showed a meaningful benefit in a subset of lung cancer patients. That profile makes it unlikely to compete against Merck’s dominant Keytruda-chemotherapy combination.