May 17, 2023

The combination of AstraZeneca’s cancer drug, Tagrisso, with chemotherapy to treat patients with a type of lung cancer showed positive results in a late-stage trial, the company said on Wednesday.

The drug maker said patients on the combined treatment showed a meaningful improvement in progression-free survival, or how long a patient lives without the disease getting worse after treatment, than patients given only Tagrisso.

The trial was on patients with locally advanced or metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated non-small cell lung cancer.

“Tagrisso has the potential to offer patients in the first-line setting a new treatment option that can extend the time they live without their disease progressing,” Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of AstraZeneca’s oncology R&D division said in a statement.

Analysts at Barclays have already flagged the threat of potential competition, especially with Johnson & Johnson  running a head-to-head trial with its own drug, Rybrevant.

REUTERS