AstraZeneca and Daiichi's breast cancer drug meets goal in study
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[September 22, 2023]
By Maggie Fick
(Reuters) -AstraZeneca said on Friday its experimental precision drug
had slowed the progression of a common type of breast cancer in a
late-stage trial, a boost for the company after its shares fell in July
on results from a separate trial of the same drug for lung cancer.
The drug, datopotamab deruxtecan, which AstraZeneca is jointly
developing with Japan's Daiichi Sankyo, is being closely watched by
analysts and investors in part due to the promise of the class of drugs
to which it belongs, known as antibody drug conjugates (ADC).
ADCs consist of tumor-seeking monoclonal antibodies that are combined
with a cell-killing chemotherapy payload.
The trial data released on Friday showed the drug, abbreviated as
Dato-DXd, demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically
meaningful improvement in slowing the progression of a type of breast
cancer in trial participants, compared to patients who received other
treatments such as chemotherapy.
The trial focused on tumors that grow in response to the hormones
estrogen or progesterone, which account for roughly two-thirds of breast
cancer cases. The study participants' disease had spread to other parts
of the body.
The British drugmaker also said that there was a "trend in improvement"
in the other main goal of the study, "overall survival" of patients, but
the data on that was not mature so the trial would continue as planned.
AstraZeneca shares rose 1.7% in early trading, to their highest level in
more than five weeks.
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Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this
illustration taken, May 21, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File
Photo
AstraZeneca is simultaneously
developing the drug for use in lung cancer, and while data from a
separate late-stage trial released in July was positive, the market
was concerned that the drug's benefits for use in lung cancer
treatment might not as pronounced as hoped, leading shares to fall
more than 6% on the day the data was released.
The company has not said when it will release detailed data from the
lung cancer study.
Analysts see the positive results from the breast cancer trial as
good for AstraZeneca, but the market is more focused on the results
of a trial called MARIPOSA by Johnson & Johnson. It compares
AstraZeneca’s blockbuster cancer drug Tagrisso alone with its own
drug, Rybrevant, in combination with another medicine.
Those results are expected later this year.
(Reporting by Maggie Fick in London, Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru,
additional reporting by Lucy Raitano in London; editing by Jan
Harvey and Jason Neely)
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