Inside the $25Bn Checkpoint Market: One Company Promises Price Disruption
If a PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor being developed by Checkpoint Therapeutics (CKPT) makes it to the finish line (interim data at last year’s ESMO has it neck-in-neck with Keytruda and Libtayo) it promises to disrupt pricing in a clubby $25 billion corner of a cancer therapy market now dominated by six drugs, each with an average cost of $165K a year. For quick adoption, CKPT may discount its entry up to 50 percent. CKPT’s lead indication is cSCC, a potentially lethal skin cancer, giving it direct aim at Regeneron/Sanofi’s Libtayo. Next up will be NSCLC, with direct aim at Libtayo and also Merck’s Keytruda, currently a $13 billion franchise. CKPT ended 1Q20 with $21.5 million in cash and cash equivalents. Next major milestone is expanded interim data in cSCC by year-end.
