Roche’s Lung Cancer Pill Outperforms Rival Drugs in Late Trial
(Bloomberg) — Roche Holding AG’s experimental lung cancer pill outperformed two approved medicines in a late-stage study, boosting the Swiss drugmaker’s bid to bring a next-generation treatment to market.
The trial indicated patients treated with Roche’s divarasib were more likely to live longer without their cancer worsening and survive longer overall than those given existing treatments sotorasib or adagrasib, the Swiss drugmaker said Thursday.
Roche’s pill is designed to switch off a faulty KRAS protein — a key regulator of cell growth — that fuels some lung cancers. The company didn’t disclose how much longer patients lived on divarasib, saying the full data will be presented later this year before it seeks regulatory approval.
Roche shares rose as much as 2.2% in Zurich trading, and are up about 29% over the past 12 months.
The results are “a small win,” said Michael Leuchten, an analyst at Jefferies. But it’s too early to declare victory in the race to develop KRAS-targeting lung cancer drugs, he said.
He estimates the market opportunity for divarasib at about 1 billion Swiss francs to 2 billion francs ($2.5 billion) annually as a second-line treatment — a drug given after an initial therapy stops working.
Investors are likely to focus on a larger study due next year that could determine whether divarasib can become a primary treatment, a market Jefferies estimates at 3 billion francs to 5 billion francs annually.
The findings come from a late-stage trial in 338 adults with previously treated KRAS G12C-mutant non-small cell lung cancer. The patients were randomized to receive either divarasib, Amgen Inc.’s sotorasib or Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s adagrasib to compare their progression-free and overall survival.
Roche said the results reinforce its ambition to make divarasib the new standard of care treatment for the disease.
“We always claimed we have the best-in-disease opportunity, but with this data we have proven it,” Stefan Frings, Roche’s deputy chief medical officer, said in an interview.
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