Biotech Values

[jq1234]

>> Going forward, I do think the market is going to pay increased attention to drugs that bring incremental benefit in the IO space, especially due to the competition between the pharma companies.


I sort of disagree here. INCY IDO is a special case IMO, benefit of first in class, thus mainly timing issue, and MRK's desire to compete with BMY's current leading IO combination Opdivo/Yervoy and potential 2nd leading IO combination from AZN's Durvalumab/Tremelimumab even though MRK has its own IDO in early stage development. After this first wave combination, I think forward criteria will be different. For example, BMY's Opdivo/Lirilumab combo in SCCHN would certainly have moved into ph3 if BMY weren't having Opdivo/Yervoy in ph3 already. In addition, almost all big players have piled up very large selection of own drugs for combinations now, I think they will start to focus on own combinations mostly, only occasionally from others, exception would be combination with others with already approved drugs, thus not pure combo drugs.