Keytruda dominance will force competitors to alternativesThe more dominant Merck will be with its Keytruda, the faster one competitor will want to work with our technology on different cancer indications, if our efficacy numbers are outstanding and superior to Keytruda.
That's the beauty of competition and competitive markets. There's always one that wants to shift the one that sits at the top. And that's the justification behind the incentives of big pharma CEOs stock options to try to bring their pharmas higher in order to gain higher market shares in this very lucrative market that is oncology in terms of profit margins.
So the more dominant Merck Keytruda is, the more one competitor will look for a strategy/technology that could displace Merck's Keytruda market shares.
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Lets take the example of Merck and its blockbuster Keytruda, a dominant one: For Merck, the driving force is HPV vaccine Gardasil and immuno-oncology star Keytruda, which recently launched in the country. There's some debate about the market for Merck’s PD-1 king in China, what with several heavily discounted domestic rivals and a high rate of lung cancer mutations, which put more patients in line for targeted therapies. But Keytruda’s “wall of data,” along with its first-mover advantage in previously untreated lung cancer, could help it do well, chief commercial officer Frank Clyburn argued on the company’s April earnings call. April 21, 2019 - Merck (NYSE:MRK) is expected to publish its Q1 2019 results on ... Merck's Q1 Earnings Growth Will Likely Be Led By Higher Keytruda Sales. - Oncology revenue has increased from $1.51 billion in Q4 2017 to $2.47 billion in Q4 2018. This can largely be attributed to strong sales growth of Keytruda. We expect this trend to continue in the near term, and forecast high twenties percent segment revenue growth in Q1.
- Keytruda is witnessing increased acceptance, and it is the leader in the immuno-oncology space.
- The drug has 15 approvals in the U.S. for 10 different types of tumors, and it has shown superior benefits in treatment over its peers.