KENILWORTH, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced positive results from two studies from the company’s leading lung cancer research program. Initial results from the Phase 2 KEYNOTE-799 trial evaluating KEYTRUDA, Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, plus concurrent chemoradiation therapy (CCRT) demonstrated an objective response rate (ORR) of 67.0% in Cohort A (squamous and nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer [NSCLC] patients who received paclitaxel plus carboplatin) and 56.6% in Cohort B (nonsquamous NSCLC patients who received cisplatin plus pemetrexed) in untreated patients with unresectable, locally advanced stage III NSCLC. Additionally, new and updated data from the final analysis of the pivotal Phase 3 KEYNOTE-189 trial showed that 45.7% of patients with metastatic nonsquamous NSCLC treated with KEYTRUDA in combination with chemotherapy were alive at two years versus 27.3% of patients treated with chemotherapy alone.

Be interesting to see initial results of 936. I would guess we wont hear anything until 4th Q. They are using the Simon two stage design.

"According to 1, Simon’s two-stage design has several advantages over the conventional single-stage design. Considerable savings in expected sample sizes can be achieved if the alternative hypothesis is in fact true, without sample sizes suffering too much if the null hypothesis is true. From ethical and economical considerations, a trial should be allowed to stop earlier after an interim analysis to better protect patients, especially in situations when the treatment is not effective.

However, it may also have a high probability of falsely declaring futility or not rejecting the null hypothesis when the treatment is actually effective 2."