MRK/Kelun: Thoughts on Sac-TMT 1L NSCLC Data From ASCO

Research evidence excerpt

MRK/Kelun: Thoughts on Sac-TMT 1L NSCLC Data From ASCO

combo w/ .

Kelun's anti-PD-L1 showed 15.4mo mPFS in 1L NSCLC pts - given pembro has historically shown Source: Company Data

~6mo mPFS in this pop, we estimated PFS HR<0.5. Today's results showed generally in-line pembro

control arm PFS of 5.7mo, w/ sac-TMT combo arm median PFS not yet reached at mF/U of 10.5mo

(9/29/25 cut-off), but HR of 0.35 (p<0.0001). Addtly, ORR was 70.2% in sac-TMT group vs 42% in

pembro alone. Note that 40% of pts had squamous (SQ) histology, and 40% had PD-L1 TPS>50%.

Akash Tewari * | Equity Analyst

While we don't have a perfect comparison to SMMT's ivonescimab in 1L NSCLC, we'll note that 1 (212) 284-3416 | atewari@jefferies.com

HARMONi-6 tested ivo+chemo in 1L SQ-only NSCLC pts, and reported 11mo mPFS. Sac-TMT Amy Li, PharmD * | Equity Analyst

efficacy looks competitive here, but we'll caveat that OptiTROP-Lung05 had only 40% w/ SQ +1 (332) 236-6802 | ali8@jefferies.com

histology, and NSQ pts appear to perform better. Phoebe Tan * | Equity Associate

(212) 778-8356 | ptan1@jefferies.com

2) The PD-L1>50% pop continued to show benefit vs pembro alone (SoC in PD-L1 high pts), with

Manoj Eradath, MBBS, Ph.D. * | Equity

PFS HR of 0.44 for sac-TMT combo. As background, pembro mono-tx is SoC in the US/globally Associate

for PD-L1-high pts, while pembro+chemo is SoC for pts w/ PD-L1 TPS 1-49%. Importantly, sac-TMT +1 (202) 707-6443 | meradath@jefferies.com

combo showed strong benefit in the PD-L1 high subgroup (PFS HR 0.47), which bodes well for

Anastasia Parafestas * | Equity Associate

MRK's global Ph3 TroFuse-007 study for sac-TMT+pembro vs pembro alone in 1L NSCLC PD- +1 (212) 336-6648 | aparafestas@jefferies.com

L1FY (Dec)TPS>50%. 2024A 2025A 2026E 2027E Katherine Wang * | Equity Associate