AstraZeneca and Merck & Co., Inc. announced promising results from a late-stage trial for Lyparza for the treatment of a type of ovarian cancer.
The drug in tablet form was used as maintenance treatment for patients with newly-diagnosed, advanced BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer who had a complete or partial response following platinum-based chemotherapy.
The data was published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Unmet medical need
Sean Bohen, executive vice president, Global Medicines Development and chief medical officer, said: “There is currently a significant unmet need in the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer because 70 percent of women relapse within the first three years after their initial treatment. The remarkable results of the SOLO-1 trial, which showed that 60 percent of women with newly-diagnosed, advanced BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer remained progression-free at three years, highlight the potential of Lynparza as a maintenance therapy in the 1st-line setting.”
Kathleen Moore, co-principal Investigator of the SOLO-1 trial and Associate Director for Clinical Research at the Stephenson Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, US, said: “Women with ovarian cancer are often diagnosed with advanced disease, which unfortunately is associated with poor long-term survival rates. The newly-diagnosed setting is our best opportunity to achieve a sustained remission, since once a patient’s ovarian cancer recurs, it is typically incurable. The SOLO-1 results demonstrate the potential of Lynparzamaintenance therapy earlier in the treatment pathway and reinforce the importance of identifying a patient’s BRCA mutation status at the time of diagnosis – these results could change the way we treat women with advanced BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer.”
Additional trials a possibility
The SOLO-1 safety profile was in line with that observed in prior clinical trials.
AstraZeneca and MSD are exploring additional trials in ovarian cancer,
Lynparza is currently approved in over 60 countries for the treatment of platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer regardless of BRCA status and in the US, Canada, Japan and Australia for germline BRCA-mutated HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer.
Lynparza is being jointly developed and commercialized by AstraZeneca and MSD, is approved for advanced ovarian cancer and metastatic breast cancer and has been used in over 20,000 patients worldwide.
AstraZeneca stock is near a five-year high as promising drug trials offset setbacks that are commonplace in an era where blockbuster drug discoveries are rare.
AstraZeneca has 1,500 employees in Delaware.
