It sounds like sci-fi -Merck and Pfizer collaborating!
I see most of the links you listed (plus the last clinical trial I mentioned, MEHD7945A + cobimetinib) like examples of a trend, in all these developments: a drug that targets the PD-1/PD-L1 pathways (an actual immunotherapy, if you want) *plus* some kind of other monoclonal antibody/ small molecule inhibitor. Am I right... even the big pharma companies are going for
combinations of drugs, realizing the need of targeting,
*simultaneously*, different pathways? It's what most of the CAM approaches have been trying to do since years ago.
GrouseMan, thank you for those links --I know something about Roche/Genentech candidate, and about Merck's (lambrolizumab; in fact, I was reading
this, published today! : ), because resulted so good against melanoma, but about the others... little to nothing. Oy, you'll make me read more.
Thank you, you're great!
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About the strategy of targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway against cancer, I have bookmarked what it looks like a very, very good article from OncLive. I've only skipped through it (it's one week old), so far; sharing it here:
The Role of Anti-PD-L1 Immunotherapy in Cancer Published Online: Wednesday,
January 29, 2014It's 8 pages long, it's has a good resume about the agents in development (see tables in pages 4, 5 and 7, if you have little time) and a good, quite accessible explanation about the functioning of our dear immune system.
(sorry about all the English mistakes... it's too late to correct too much : )