New top-selling drug in the world

MSD's Keytruda rose to be the top-earning drug globally in 2023, a title ten years in the making. It was held at bay for years by AbbVie's mega-blockbuster Humira, which only fell when Pfizer's Covid vaccine Comirnaty surged to the top in the pandemic.

The PD-L1 inhibitor has been steadily growing thanks to MSD continually securing approvals for new indications. It's approved for more than 30 indications across various cancer types and stages around the world, including for 26 cancer types in Australia. However, it's reimbursed on the PBS for only 15 of those.

In Australia it took Keytruda a bit longer to surpass Vertex's cystic fibrosis drug Trikafta, becoming the most PBS-reimbursed drug in April this year. Globally, Trikafta was the 12th highest earner in 2023.