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Oncology

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After their decision to include Abbvie's triple combination for hepatitis C on their formulary, over Gilead's more expensive regimens, Express Scripts indicated at the J. P. Morgan Healthcare Conference that they'll continue the stance of choosing treatments that are equally effective but save costs, especially in cancer.

Merck and Eli Lilly have entered an agreement to collaborate on clinical trials to evaluate the former's recently approved PD-1 inhibitor, Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in combination with Lilly's oncology agents in several clinical trials targeting multiple tumor types.

Mid-trial evaluation by an independent Data Monitoring Committee found overall survival with Opdivo (nivolumab) in the Checkmate-017 trial was significantly better than the control arm. BMS now plans to submit results to the FDA for approval of the PD-1 inhibitor in lung cancer.

The study, published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research found that HPV persisted for 12 months or more in men older than 45 years of age, which could increase their susceptibility to developing head and neck cancer.

Research at Heildelberg University is targeting the production of tumor-promoting growth factors in endothelial cells to prevent metastasis. Pre-clinical results using this strategy in a mouse model reduced lung and bone metastases in treated mice and also improved survival over the control chemotherapy-treated animals.