Pharma firms spending billions on treatments based off old drugs, Bloomberg says

Pharmaceutical companies are investing billions in PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibodies, which combine versions of Merck’s (MRK) Keytruda and Roche’s (RHHBY) Avastin, despite limited evidence that these combinations extend patient survival, Bloomberg’s Gerry Smith, Robert Langreth, and Tanaz Meghjani report. Over the past year, more than $6B has been committed to acquiring rights and funding clinical trials for these dual-acting drugs, reflecting a rush to capitalize on a potential next-generation cancer therapy. Pfizer (PFE), Merck, and Bristol-Myers (BMY) are among the drugmakers that have piled in to gain rights to the treatments.