(Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Wednesday said its Enhertu drug achieved statistically significant overall survival in breast cancer patients in a recent trial.
The Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company develops Enhertu, a specifically engineered HER2-directed antibody drug conjugate, with its Tokyo-based partner Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd.
AstraZeneca said results from its Destiny-Breast03 Phase 3 trial showed that Enhertu demonstrated a 36% reduction in the risk of death in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, compared to trastuzumab emtansine, which is another cancer drug.
Around 77% of patients were alive in the Enhertu arm at two years, compared to 70% of patients treated with trastuzumab emtansine. AstraZeneca said the observed survival benefit was consistent across all analysed subgroups.
It added that the recent trial showed Enhertu continues to demonstrate an improvement in progression-free survival, with a 22-month improvement in median progression-free survival over trastuzumab emtansine.
“The updated results for Destiny-Breast03 showing that Enhertu extends patients’ lives and also delays progression by nearly two years reinforces our belief that this medicine has the potential to set a new standard of care for patients," said Susan Galbraith, AstraZeneca's executive vice president of Oncology Research & Development.
"We now have two Phase III trials in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer showing patients in these trials have more disease-free time and live longer when they receive Enhertu versus the previous standard of care.”
Ken Takeshita, Daiichi Sankyo global head of Research & Development, added: “Median progression-free survival was four times longer with one in five patients showing no detectable signs of disease when treated with Enhertu compared to trastuzumab emtansine in Destiny-Breast03.”
Last month, AstraZeneca won recommended approval for Enhertu in the treatment of advanced human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 positive gastric cancer in those who have received a prior regimen of trastuzumab.
This was based on a phase 2 study showing an objective response rate of 51% compared to 14% with chemotherapy.
AstraZeneca shares were up 1.5% to 11,320.00 pence on Wednesday afternoon in London, while Daiichi Sankyo shares closed at JYP4,340.00.
By Jaskeet Briah, Alliance News reporter
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