Lynparza of AstraZeneca has demonstrated its effectiveness in curbing ovarian cancer

MUNICH (Reuters) – An AstraZeneca drug blocking the ability of a cancer cell to repair its genetic code has significantly reduced the risk of ovarian cancer worsening in a phase III trial, bolstering its lead over two competitors Americans of the same class.

As a maintenance therapy to strengthen initial chemotherapy, Lynparza stopped or reversed tumor growth in 60% of patients three years after the start of the trial. Only 28% of the control group who received only chemotherapy were spared tumor progression at this stage.

By the fourth year, the Lynparza group's progression-free survival rate (PFS) was still above 50%, compared with 11% for chemotherapy alone.

"The findings … announce a new era of treatment for women with advanced ovarian cancer carriers with a BRCA mutation," said Kathleen Moore, associate professor at Stephenson Cancer Center from the University of Oklahoma, who presented the results to the European Society for Medical Oncology in Munich on Sunday.

Cancer cells carrying the so-called BRCA mutation have a reduced ability to restore their DNA when it is damaged during cell division, which is a factor behind cancer mutations.

Lynparza and other medicines belonging to the class of PARP inhibitors are designed to block what is left of this DNA repair mechanism, so that BRCA mutated cancer cells can not replicate themselves. and that the tumor can no longer be maintained.

The drug, already approved for later use in patients with BRCA mutations and for a certain type of breast cancer, was the first PARP inhibitor to be marketed after being approved in the US at the end of 2014, but is now subject to competition from products manufactured by Tesaro. and Clovis Oncology.

The British pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca, which published some initial information on the trial in June, generated Lynparza sales of $ 297 million last year. Analysts see an average of $ 2 billion in revenue from this drug in 2023, according to Refinitiv data.

The result is expected to pave the way for expanded use of the drug, developed and marketed with Merck & Co under an agreement reached last year, and AstraZeneca is in talks with regulators about approval procedures.

Treatment with Lynparza at an early stage of treatment, called first-line use, places AstraZeneca on an order for longer prescriptions.

Rubraca from Clovis Oncology has been approved for ovarian cancer after failure of initial chemotherapy. Tesaro, meanwhile, expects that the results of clinical trials on the first – line use of his drug Zejula against ovarian cancer will be known next year.

Talazoparib, a Pfizer inhibitor of PARP, was approved this week for a subtype of advanced breast cancer.