An illustrative image of an individual holding a medical syringe and a Covid-19 vaccine vial in front of the the AstraZeneca logo displayed on a screen.
On Wednesday, January 12, 2021, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
AstraZeneca shares fell greater than 5% Tuesday morning, the largest one-day drop in seven months, after the British pharmaceutical giant announced disappointing lung cancer drug trial results.
The Covid-19 vaccine maker was trading at the underside of the FTSE 100 and dragged the broader healthcare sector lower after data published Monday showed that its experimental drug datopotamab deruxtecan didn’t significantly improve overall survival results for patients.
Share were down 4.8% by 11:00 a.m. London time.
The late-stage trial results from the TROPION-Lung01 Phase III trial showed that the general survival rate from the brand new drug “didn’t reach statistical significance,” the corporate said.
The corporate’s Dato-DXd drug was being trialled against chemotherapy treatment docetaxel on patients whose non-small cell lung cancer had returned after one or two previous treatment attempts.
Susan Galbraith, executive vice chairman of oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, said the outcomes showed a “clinically meaningful” trends towards improving the survival rate of patients with advanced lung cancer.
The drug trials have been monitored by investors who hope that it may very well be one other winning medication following the success of the Cambridge, England-based company’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Earlier trials in July 2023 also disillusioned markets despite showing some success in stalling cancer progression.
The drug, which is being developed with Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo, is in search of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is due in December.
Citigroup said in a note that it has been a “mixed picture” for the drug but that confidence within the approval “stays high,” whilst Monday’s results add complexity to the image.
“We predict the information create more complexity and thus if anything, further barely raise approval risks short-term,” the analysts wrote within the Monday note.
