Astra’s Imfinzi Shows Positive Signs in Deadly Lung Cancer

(Bloomberg) -- An AstraZeneca Plc medicine called Imfinzi showed that it can offer a new treatment option for one of the most deadly forms of lung cancer.

Patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer who took the drug along with chemotherapy lived longer and had better responses to treatment than those who got the standard therapy alone, according to study results presented Monday in Barcelona. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Imfinzi orphan drug designation in small cell lung cancer in July, after the company released key results from the study, which could speed approval in the area.

Lung cancer, the world’s most common and lethal tumor, kills about 1.8 million people annually, and about 15% of cases are the small-cell type. Most patients die within five years of diagnosis, and doctors are looking for help from immune-oncology drugs that have already proven effective in other forms of the disease.

Imfinzi is one of a number of new products that have made AstraZeneca into a redoubt of cancer treatments -- challenging established rivals like Roche Holding AG -- and sent the shares rising close to 60% in the past two years.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:

The study “not only corroborates Imfinzi’s serious challenge to Roche’s Tecentriq in this key setting, but also adds support to consensus sales of $3.6 billion in 2023. Detailed data also show potential for better tolerability.”

-- Sam Fazeli, BI pharma analyst

-- Click here to see research

Patients who got the drug along with chemotherapy lived about 13 months during the study period, almost three months longer than those who received chemotherapy alone, according to the research reported at the 2019 World Conference on Lung Cancer. A significant increase in overall survival was the main goal of the study.

Living Longer

The trial is taking place in more than 200 centers in 22 countries, where doctors may use varying forms of chemotherapy to treat cancer. Astra’s drug was compared with both major forms in patients getting as many as six doses of chemotherapy, potentially a high bar for showing improvement.

About 68% of patients who received Imfinzi along with chemotherapy responded to treatment, compared with about 58% of those who got chemotherapy alone. Responses to treatment lasted longer and patients’ risk of death was 27% lower when Imfinzi was added.

“More patients respond, and of those who respond, their responses are more durable,” said Dave Fredrickson, Astra’s executive vice president for oncology. “That’s translating into a significant improvement in overall survival.”

Imfinzi is already approved to treat non small cell lung cancer, a more common form of the disease, when it’s in an early stage and can’t be surgically removed.

In another arm of the study, the drug was combined with tremelimumab, an experimental immune oncology drug, along with chemotherapy. That part of the study is still going, as a panel monitoring the trial didn’t allow an early analysis of data from patients receiving the combination.

Astra shares fell as much as 1.1% in London trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in London at jlauerman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, Marthe Fourcade, Thomas Mulier

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