AstraZeneca breast most cancers drug trial fails to increase lives of sufferers
- Britain’s largest pharma firm said drug did not ‘achieve statistical significance’
- This compares breast cancer survival rates to those receiving chemotherapy
AstraZeneca revealed its experimental breast cancer drug did not succeed in prolonging the survival of patients with the disease.
Britain’s largest pharmaceutical business said the trial focused on patients who were suffering from inoperable or metastatic hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-low or negative breast cancer.
The Cambridge-based firm said the drug did not ‘achieve statistical significance’ in terms of the survival rates of those suffering from breast cancer compared to chemotherapy.
AstraZeneca revealed that its experimental breast cancer drug did not succeed in prolonging the survival of patients with the disease.
The drug, which is named Datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd), was jointly developed by the British-Swedish group and Japanese global healthcare company Daiichi Sankyo.
More than two million people worldwide are diagnosed with breast cancer each year.
HR-positive, HER2-low or negative breast cancer is the most common subtype, accounting for more than 65 per cent of diagnosed cases, according to AstraZeneca
The news will come as a massive blow for the FTSE 100 drugs giant, who said earlier this year that it was targeting $80billion in annual revenues by 2030.
Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology research and development at AstraZeneca, said that the results did show the drug offered ‘clinical value’.
She said: ‘We will continue discussions with regulatory authorities and apply insights from these results to our clinical development programme for datopotamab deruxtecan in breast cancer.’
Ken Takeshita, global head of research and development of Daiichi Sankyo, added: ‘We are proud to have brought forth a new standard of care for patients with metastatic breast cancer with Enhertu and we remain committed to making datopotamab deruxtecan another potential option for patients who can benefit.’
In July, sales in AstraZeneca’s top business, oncology, grew 19 per cent at constant currency rates to $5.3billion (£4.1billion) and accounted for 41 per cent of the total, while its rare disease and heart and kidney disease arms also each raked in double-digit growth.
However, the group’s second-quarter profit was hit amid a rise in expenses and sales of cancer drugs Enhertu and Imfinzi were slightly softer than expected, analysts said.
Earlier this month, AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot, said the company is ‘working very closely’ with China after the arrest of a handful of staff.
The firm revealed a ‘small number’ of employees were under investigation in the country, where it made £4.5billion of revenue last year, or 13 per cent of its total.
The Chinese authorities are looking into whether AstraZeneca breached privacy laws when collecting patient data as well as the distribution of a liver cancer drug that has not been approved in mainland China.
AstraZeneca shares were down 2 per cent to 11,536p in early afternoon trading on Monday.
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