AstraZeneca said a clinical trial showed its drug Lynparza was able to delay disease progression in women with advanced ovarian cancer.
The pharmaceutical company said Saturday that patients in the phase 3 Paola-1 trial who were administered Lynparza together with Avastin, a standard ovarian cancer treatment, showed a delay in the spread of the cancer compared with those who hadn’t taken the drug.
AstraZeneca said the results showed that two years after the trial started, 46% of women who were given Lynparza didn’t see their disease progress compared with 28% who weren’t administered the treatment.
Lynparza is a PARP inhibitor, a group of drugs that have traditionally been reserved for people who have a mutation that makes their tumors particularly vulnerable to the compound. However, Astra said that the medicine worked regardless of the patient’s genetic status
Lynparza was developed in collaboration with Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) In the first half of the year sales of the drug totaled $520 million, nearly double the same period the year before. Astra’s cancer drug portfolio has been key to returning it to sales growth after the patents for a number of its blockbuster drugs expired.
David Fredrickson, executive vice president for Astra’s oncology division, said that about 30% of patients with advanced ovarian cancer receive Lynparza in the U.S. in the first line setting-meaning together with standard treatments like surgery or chemotherapy.
Mr. Fredrickson said the latest set of results could see that number rising to 50% or more. He said talks with regulators are ongoing and the company was aiming for expanded approval in the U.S. and Europe next year.
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