AstraZeneca hails "meaningful" results in cancer drug trial

(Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Monday said it had seen promising results in a recent trial of its Tagrisso treatment for lung cancer.

The Cambridge, England-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm posted "significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival" among patients who were dosed with Tagrisson or osimertinib, combined with pemetrexed and chemotherapy.

Previous trials had shown survival benefits for patients who received Tagrisson alone, but AztraZenca said the combination was shown to be more effective in meeting secondary endpoints.

AstraZeneca's Tagrisson drug is for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, which is metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated.

"These exciting overall survival results add to the extensive evidence supporting Tagrisso as the backbone therapy in EGFR-mutated lung cancer," commented Susan Galbraith, AstraZeneca's executive vice president of Oncology Haematology Research & Development.

The company said the drug's safety profile was manageable, with a higher rate of adverse events for the Tagrisso-chemotherapy combination, in line with typical negative side effects of chemotherapy.

The trial's principal investigator Pasi Janne said the results support osimertinib "as standard of care" for EGFR-mutated cancer patients. Janne also noted that AstraZeneca's drug "did not impose any restrictions on the choice of subsequent treatment after disease progression".

Based on prior testing, Tagrisson is approved in about 80 countries, including the US, EU, China and Japan. AstraZeneca is currently investigating its use as both an early and late-stage cancer intervention.

AstraZeneca shares were 0.4% lower at 10,254.00 pence on Monday morning in London.

By Holly Munks, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Astrazeneca