Astrazeneca: London-listed pharma giant heralds successful new breast cancer drug
Astrazeneca has found that Enhertu helped patients live longer without their breast cancer getting worse compared to standard chemotherapy.
London-listed Astrazeneca has reported positive results from a clinical trial of its new breast cancer drug, as the European Union approves another of its other treatments.
The British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant, which is the second-biggest firm on the FTSE 100 behind Shell in terms of market cap, said the Enhertu trial showed a “statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement” in the time that a patient lives without their disease getting worse, known as progression-free survival.
Astrazeneca’s study focused on patients who have hormone receptor-positive breast cancer and low levels of a protein called HER2.
It found that Enhertu helped patients live longer without their cancer getting worse compared to standard chemotherapy. This was true for both the main group of patients and for those with very low levels of HER2.
Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology R&D at Astrazeneca, said the trial “shows that Enhertu could become a new standard of care for patients with HER2-low and HER2-ultralow metastatic breast cancer.”
“These data underscore the potential for treatment with Enhertu across the spectrum of HR-positive breast cancer, further redefining the treatment of metastatic breast cancer,” she added.
Astrazeneca said it did not identify any new safety issues and will share its findings with global regulatory authorities.
The company also reported today that two of its other drugs, Truqap combined with Faslodex, have been recommended for approval in the European Union to treat adults with a specific type of advanced breast cancel.
It comes after a recent study showed that using Truqap along with Faslodex reduced the risk of the disease getting worse or death by 50 per cent compared to just using Faslodex alone.
“If approved, patients in Europe with this specific type of disease may be able to benefit from this first-in-class treatment option,” said Galbraith.
In Europe, breast cancer caused more than 140,000 deaths in 2022, with over 550,000 new patients diagnosed in the same year, according to the World Health Organisation.
Shares in Astrazeneca jumped up over one per cent on Monday morning when the market opened.
