J&J Says Lung Cancer Combo Improves Survival More Than Standard of Care

Johnson & Johnson said its combination therapy for lung cancer outperformed AstraZeneca Plc’s blockbuster Tagrisso in a head-to-head study, a finding that could change the standard of care for one of the most deadly tumor types.

Patients who received J&J’s treatment lived significantly longer than those given Tagrisso, the company said in a statement. The combination is expected to extend patients’ median overall survival by at least a year more than Astra’s medicine, the current standard of care, J&J said.

Shares of J&J rose 2% by midday in New York. Astra was little changed.

The company plans to present the detailed findings from the study of more than 1,000 people with a common form of non-small cell lung cancer at a medical meeting later this year. If the results hold up, it will mark the first time any treatment has proved superior to Astra’s top-selling drug on the critical metric of survival.

The results could upend the market for targeted lung cancer treatments, where Tagrisso, first approved in 2015, has become the dominant product with more than $6 billion a year in revenue. J&J’s therapy, which combines the intravenous Rybrevant with a pill called Lazcluze, won US Food and Drug Administration approval last year based on data showing it delayed the cancer’s progression more than Tagrisso alone.

Both medicines are designed for patients with mutations to a gene called EGFR, which spurs tumor growth and is among the most common drivers of lung cancer.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/j-j-says-lung-cancer-161434688.html