By Colin Kellaher

Merck & Co. on Tuesday said a pivotal Phase 3 study of its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda met its primary endpoints of overall survival and progression-free survival for the first-line treatment of patients with persistent, recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer.

The Kenilworth, N.J., drugmaker said Keytruda plus platinum-based chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements compared with the same platinum-based chemotherapy regimens with or without bevacizumab alone.

Merck said that Keytruda's safety profile was consistent with that observed in previous studies, adding that it plans to submit the study results to regulatory authorities.

The company said the study is also serving as the confirmatory trial for the current accelerated approval of Keytruda for the second-line treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer, with disease progression on or after chemotherapy, whose tumors express PD-L1 as determined by a test approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Keytruda, a cancer drug that harnesses a patient's immune system to fight tumors, has been approved in several indications in numerous cancers.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-22-21 0717ET