{"id":98196,"date":"2026-04-14T11:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=98196"},"modified":"2026-04-14T15:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T09:46:32","slug":"keytruda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/keytruda\/","title":{"rendered":"Keytruda"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Keytruda Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recent investigations have found an alarming rise of a counterfeit market in Keytruda fuelled by lack of access for most patients, and use of standardised high dosing that increases costs.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Keytruda<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>brand name of pembrolizumab,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> an immunotherapy drug used for treating several cancers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was manufactured by US-based global <\/span><b>pharma major Merck &amp; Co (MSD)<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It belongs to a class <\/span><b>called \u201ccheckpoint inhibitors\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 drugs that <\/span><b>remove the brakes preventing the body\u2019s T cells<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which are a crucial weapon in the body\u2019s immune system, from attacking cancerous cells.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other words, it uses the body\u2019s own immune system to fight cancer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It belongs to the <\/span><b>category of<\/b> <b>monoclonal antibodies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Monoclonal antibodies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are <\/span><b>laboratory-made molecules<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> designed to bind with specific targets, enabling the immune system to identify and destroy cancerous cells.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Working<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pembrolizumab works by <\/span><b>attaching to receptors called PD-1 on T cells<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This prevents T cells from binding with corresponding PD-L1 receptors on cancer cells, letting them <\/span><b>identify the abnormal cells<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and triggering an immune response.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was first approved by the US FDA in 2014 for advanced skin cancer,\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keytruda is now<\/span><b> used globally for certain lung cancers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/cervical-cancer-ca\/\" target=\"_blank\">cervical cancer<\/a><\/strong>, renal cell cancer and aggressive breast cancer, among others.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-health\/whats-keytruda-why-is-it-a-big-deal-in-indias-cancer-fight-10633124\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Keytruda is the brand name of pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug used for treating several cancers. Read more about Keytruda Drug, Uses, Side Effects, Working, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":98225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6846,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-98196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-keytruda","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98196"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98233,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98196\/revisions\/98233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}