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(Adds background on China approval from 2019)
July 19 (Reuters) - China has approved AstraZeneca's
drug Imfinzi to treat an aggressive type of lung cancer in
adults, the company said on Monday, in a boost to its efforts to
tackle the disease.
China's National Medical Products Administration has okayed
use of the drug with chemotherapy in adults with extensive-stage
small cell lung cancer (SCLC), the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said.
The Chinese agency approved Imfinzi in 2019 to treat a
certain type of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
SCLC is an aggressive form of lung cancer that typically
recurs and advances despite a response to chemotherapy. Only
about 3% of those with extensive-stage disease live beyond five
years after diagnosis.
China's approval came after positive results from a
late-stage trial, which showed that the drug, when used with
chemotherapy, helped improve patients' overall survival compared
to chemotherapy alone. Results from a local trial also aligned
with global results, AstraZeneca said.
The drugmaker is also seeking to catch up with Swiss rival
Roche, whose Tecentriq is approved in China and many
other countries for extensive-stage SCLC.
AstraZeneca's lung cancer portfolio includes a range of
medicines including Imfinzi, which was approved in the United
States and the European Union last year for extensive-stage
SCLC.
Imfinzi, which enables the immune system to detect and
attack certain cancer cells, is already approved in many
countries as a treatment for the more common NSCLC.
Lung cancer accounts for roughly a fifth of all deaths from
cancer and is the leading cause of cancer deaths among both men
and women.
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar in Bengaluru; editing by Arun
Koyyur and Jason Neely)
