17th Annual Weinman Award Recipient

17th Annual Weinman Award Recipient

Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD was designated the 17th Annual Weinman for his groundbreaking work that resulted in novel and effective therapies for patients with metastatic melanoma, a diagnosis which was once thought untreatable. According to a recent UCLA press release about his groundbreaking research on Keytruda (pembrolizumab), Dr. Ribas observed that it had "limited use." Dr. Ribas "was part of changing that when he helped develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of the drug to treat advanced melanoma. The largest phase 1 study in the history of oncology, Keytruda was tested on more than 600 patients with melanoma that had spread throughout their bodies. The research was conducted at UCLA and 11 other sites in the U.S., Europe and Australia, with Ribas as the study’s principal investigator. Based on the results, the FDA granted pembrolizumab accelerated approval in 2014."