New I-O Targets Herald a Decade of Drugging the Undruggable
Source: Bio Space, January 2023
There’s a revolution unfolding in cancer therapeutics as researchers learn to harness the immune system to fight even the most stubborn tumors.
Three key immune checkpoints have been established during the past decade. In 2011, CTLA-4 was validated as an immune checkpoint when the FDA approved Bristol Myers Squibb’s Yervoy (ipilimumab) in metastatic melanoma. This approval was followed in 2014 by PD-1 when the regulator greenlit Merck’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab), also in melanoma.
Last year, it was BMS’s turn again to make history with the approval of Opdualag, a fixed-dose combination of the LAG-3-blocking antibody relatlimab and the PD-1-blocking antibody nivolumab.