Pazdur grills PD-1/PD-L1 companies over lack of collaboration, trial redundancies

FDA's Oncology Center of Excellence Director Richard Pazdur pressed representatives from companies with marketed PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors to explain why they aren't collaborating more in the clinic while questioning whether there are too many of these drugs on the market. His comments came as he moderated a session at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting on Monday titled "PD-1 Pandemonium."

Pazdur chastised companies for failing to work together to develop biomarkers and conduct platform trials, suggesting it was an inefficient use of one of the healthcare system’s most precious resources, patients. He cited the multiple ongoing Phase III trials in renal cell carcinoma that are all using Sutent sunitinib as the comparator. ...