An illustrative image of a person holding a medical syringe and a vial of the Covid-19 vaccine in front of the AstraZeneca logo displayed on a screen, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2021. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
AstraZeneca Shares fell more than 5% on Tuesday morning, their biggest daily loss in seven months, after the British pharmaceutical giant announced disappointing test results for a lung cancer drug.
The maker of the Covid-19 vaccine traded at the low of the FTSE 100 and dragged down the entire healthcare sector after data released on Monday showed that its experimental drug datopotamab deruxtecan did not significantly improve patients' overall survival outcomes.
By 11:00 a.m. London time, shares had fallen 4.8 percent.
The results of the late-stage Phase III TROPION-Lung01 study showed that the overall survival rate of the new drug “did not reach statistical significance,” the company said.
The company's drug Dato-DXd was tested compared to chemotherapy treatment docetaxel in patients whose non-small cell lung cancer had returned after one or two previous treatment attempts.
Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology research and development at AstraZeneca, said the results showed a “clinically meaningful” trend toward improving survival in patients with advanced lung cancer.
The drug tests have been watched by investors who hope that it could be another successful drug following the success of the Cambridge, England-based company's Covid-19 vaccine.
Earlier studies in July 2023 also disappointed markets, although they showed some success in slowing cancer progression.
The drug, which is being developed jointly with the Japanese company Daiichi Sankyo, must be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December.
Citigroup said in a statement that the picture for the drug was “mixed” but that confidence in its approval “remains high,” even though Monday's results made the picture even more complex.
“We believe that the data will add complexity and thus increase the approval risks even further in the short term,” the analysts wrote in their Monday note.
Comments are closed.