11th Sep 2023 10:17
(Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC reported positive clinical results of combinations of its Imfinzi and Tagrisso drugs with other treatments for lung cancer, while also seeing "strong and durable" tumour responses from its Enhertu antibody drug conjugate.
"Encouraging responses" were seen in patients with non-small cell lung cancer from the combination of datopotamab deruxtecan, which is being jointly developed with Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd, and Imfinzi, whose generic name is durvalumab.
The initial results, presented at a medical conference on Sunday, were from the Tropion-Lung04 phase Ib trial of patients with previously untreated advanced or metastatic NSCLC without actionable genomic alterations. This found an objective response rate of 50.0% to the combination of datopotamab deruxtecan and Imfinzi. The even higher response rate of 76.9% was found in patients who also received carboplatin.
"Most patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer experience disease progression after initial treatment, underscoring the need for more effective first-line treatment options," said Saiama Waqar of Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, the investigator in the trial.
Additionally, AstraZeneca on Monday presented at another medical symposium positive results from the Flaura2 phase III trial of Tagrisso, whose generic name is osimertinib, used in combination with chemotherapy on patients with NSCLC.
The combination showed "statistically significant and clinically meaningful" improvement in progression-free survival, compared to Tagrisso alone. Tagrisso plus chemotherapy reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 38% compared to Tagrisso alone, AstraZeneca said.
The trial was for patients with locally advanced or metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated NSCLC.
Enhertu, also developed jointly by AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, showed 49% and 56% response rates in tests of different sized doses. The tests were in previously treated patients with HER2-mutant unresectable and/or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC.
Enhertu, whose generic name is trastuzumab deruxtecan, provided a median progression-free survival of 9.9 months at 5.4 milligram per kilogram dose and 15.4 months at 6.4 milligrams.
AstraZeneca shares were down 1.6% at 10,678.00 pence on Monday morning in London. Daiichi Sankyo closed down 0.9% at JPY4,119.00 in Tokyo.
By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor
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