US pharmaceutical company Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK), known as MSD outside the US and Canada, announced on Monday that it has secured approval from China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for KEYTRUDA in combination with chemotherapy as a neoadjuvant treatment followed by monotherapy as an adjuvant treatment for patients with resectable stage II, IIIA or IIIB non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

This approval is based on the positive results of the KEYNOTE-671 trial, which demonstrated a significant improvement in overall survival and event-free survival for patients treated with the KEYTRUDA-based regimen compared to chemotherapy and placebo.

There are currently more than 1,600 trials studying KEYTRUDA across a wide variety of cancers and treatment settings.