Merck & Co. (MSD)

Pembrolizumab is a PD-1 blocking antibody approved in more than 40 settings, from melanoma and lung cancer to the first tumour-agnostic approval for mismatch-repair-deficient tumours in 2017, and before and after surgery in triple-negative breast cancer. A subcutaneous form arrived in 2025, and it is the backbone partner for ADCs and personalised neoantigen vaccines.

Sacituzumab tirumotecan is Kelun-Biotech's TROP2 ADC, approved in China in 2024 for pretreated triple-negative breast cancer and then EGFR-mutant lung cancer. Merck holds rights outside Greater China and runs the TroFuse programme of more than ten phase 3 trials across breast, lung, endometrial and cervical cancer; in the US it holds a priority voucher but no approval yet.

Belzutifan is the first HIF-2α inhibitor, born from Nobel-winning biology, and is now approved after kidney cancer surgery with pembrolizumab.

A custom mRNA vaccine encoding up to 34 of a patient's own tumour mutations. In August 2026 it became the first personalised cancer vaccine to win a phase 3 trial.

Olaparib was the first PARP inhibitor, and turned an inherited BRCA mutation from a risk factor into a drug target, including after surgery in breast cancer.

A HER3-directed ADC with Enhertu's payload, active in lung and all subtypes of breast cancer, but with a bumpy regulatory road.

Ifinatamab deruxtecan is a B7-H3 ADC showing some of the best response rates ever seen in relapsed small-cell lung cancer.

Raludotatug deruxtecan is a CDH6 ADC in phase 3 for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

Zilovertamab vedotin is a ROR1-directed ADC in phase 3 for large B-cell lymphoma.

Calderasib is an experimental small-molecule drug from Merck Sharp & Dohme in phase 3 trials for non-small-cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer, aimed at KRAS.

Zanzalintinib is an experimental small-molecule drug from Exelixis in phase 3 trials for neuroendocrine tumours, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and renal cell carcinoma, aimed at VEGF / VEGFR and MET.

Opevesostat is an experimental small-molecule drug from Merck Sharp & Dohme in phase 3 trials for prostate cancer, with its target not yet stated publicly.

MK-1045 is an experimental investigational agent whose form is not stated in the registry from Merck Sharp & Dohme in phase 3 trials for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, follicular lymphoma and hodgkin lymphoma, aimed at CD19.

Bomedemstat is an experimental small-molecule drug from Merck Sharp & Dohme in phase 3 trials for myeloproliferative neoplasms, with its target not yet stated publicly.

Vibostolimab is a monoclonal antibody from Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, in registered phase 2 trials for non-small-cell lung cancer.

Boserolimab is a monoclonal antibody from Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, in registered phase 2 trials for non-small-cell lung cancer.

Favezelimab is Merck's LAG-3 antibody, tested with pembrolizumab in phase 3 trials in colorectal cancer and classical Hodgkin lymphoma; the colorectal trial did not succeed.

The only chemotherapy proven to extend life in glioblastoma, given during and after radiation. It works best when the tumour has switched off a repair gene called MGMT.

Interferon alfa was the first biologic cancer drug (1986). It treated hairy cell leukaemia, CML, melanoma, kidney cancer and Kaposi sarcoma, and has been replaced almost everywhere by better-tolerated agents.

Peginterferon alfa-2b, a long-acting interferon, was approved in 2011 as Sylatron for melanoma that had spread to lymph nodes and been removed, to delay recurrence; checkpoint inhibitors have since replaced it in that role.

Flutamide was the first tablet to block testosterone at the prostate cancer cell. It is taken with an injection that stops testosterone production, but newer drugs have largely replaced it.

Aprepitant (Emend) was the first of a new class of anti-sickness drugs. Taken with a 5-HT3 blocker and dexamethasone, it prevents the delayed nausea and vomiting that follow strongly emetogenic chemotherapy such as cisplatin.

Capmatinib and tepotinib are two pills for the roughly 3% of lung cancers with a MET exon 14 skipping mutation.

Cetuximab is a chimeric antibody that blocks the EGFR growth receptor. It is used with FOLFIRI or FOLFOX in RAS wild-type, left-sided bowel cancer, with encorafenib in BRAF V600E disease, with KRAS G12C inhibitors, and with radiation or chemotherapy in head and neck cancer; RAS-mutant tumours gain nothing and may be harmed, so RAS testing comes first.

An enzyme blocker meant to stop tumours starving T cells of tryptophan. Its 2018 phase 3 failure ended an entire class overnight.

Gardasil was the first HPV vaccine, licensed in 2006 to prevent cervical and other genital cancers and genital warts. It has been replaced in most countries by the nine-type version, Gardasil 9.

A weakened tuberculosis vaccine put directly into the bladder. Since 1976 it has been the most effective treatment for early bladder cancer, and it remains in chronic short supply.

Ivermectin is a worm and parasite medicine that is being tested as an add-on to immunotherapy in two small early trials. No trial has shown that it treats any cancer, and people who have dosed themselves outside a trial have ended up in hospital with seizures or liver damage.

An oral anti-angiogenic pill that matched sorafenib in liver cancer with higher response rates, and partners with pembrolizumab in kidney and endometrial cancer.

Nemtabrutinib is Merck's reversible BTK blocker, active against the C481S escape mutation, being tested against ibrutinib and acalabrutinib in first-line CLL.

A vaccine against nine HPV types that prevents about 90% of cervical cancers, and now works with a single dose.

Selumetinib (Koselugo) is the first medicine for children and adults with neurofibromatosis type 1 whose plexiform neurofibromas, benign but disfiguring and painful nerve tumours, cannot be removed by surgery.

Vorinostat (Zolinza) was the first drug of its kind, a capsule that loosens the chemical packaging of DNA. It treats the skin disease of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma after two other treatments have failed.