On 9 May 2025, New Zealand’s drug funding body, Pharmac, announced that it will be widening access to treatments for melanoma from 1 June 2025, including funding MSD’s Keytruda® (pembrolizumab) for resectable stage IIIB to stage IV melanoma, subject to eligibility criteria.
Pembrolizumab is currently already funded in New Zealand for eligible patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.
There are pembrolizumab biosimilars in clinical trials for the treatment of melanoma, including Sandoz’s GME751 (Phase 1 trial in resected advanced melanoma) and Formycon’s FYB206 (Phase 1 trial commenced in June 2024 comparing the pharmacokinetics, safety and tolerability of FYB206 with Keytruda® in malignant melanoma).