AstraZeneca Plc shares fell as results from a high-level study of a new cancer medicine raised concern the drug might not work as well as anticipated.
(Bloomberg) — AstraZeneca Plc shares fell as results from a high-level study of a new cancer medicine raised concern the drug might not work as well as anticipated.
The drug helped patients with the most common form of lung cancer live longer without worsening compared with standard chemotherapy, the UK drugmaker said Monday. The stock fell as much as 6.2% as investors were expecting a clearer statement on the trial’s success in terms of progression-free survival as well as how much longer patients lived overall.
AstraZeneca’s description of the data suggests that the benefit is less pronounced than hoped, Jefferies analysts said. The company also reported some deaths in the trial, raising safety concerns. The trial is continuing because the data isn’t fully mature yet.
Scientists and doctors have been trying to find a more targeted approach to chemotherapy for decades in an effort to move away from the current catch-all method that involves blasting the whole body and killing good cells as well as bad. Astra’s drug — known as datopotamab deruxtecan, or Dato-DXd — takes a more potent chemo directly to the infected cells to kill the cancer while sparing the healthy cells.
Astra agreed to pay as much as $6 billion for the right to develop the medicine with Daiichi Sankyo Co. as part of a broader bet to revive growth a decade ago by building a pipeline of oncology drugs. The treatment could garner as much as $18 billion in sales, Jefferies analysts have estimated.
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:
“AstraZeneca’s reported successful outcome for Dato-DXd in the Tropion-Lung01 study comes with limited details and is concerning due to reports of “some Grade 5 toxicity events” (IE deaths), in particular given that this drug dose apparently saw no such issues in the Phase 1 Tropion-PanTumor01 trial. Also, though progression-free survival benefit was reported as statistically significant, the lack of numerical detail — a minimum 2-3 month benefit was targeted — will lead to questions regarding clinical significance. Given peak sales estimates of $10 billion, Astra shares could be under pressure today.” — John Murphy, BI pharma analyst
Safety Concerns Arise Amid Positive Astra Dato-DXd Data: React
AstraZeneca was expected to say the data were “clinically meaningful” to give a sense that the drug was adding several months of survival to patients, wrote Emily Field, an analyst at Barclays.
Instead, AstraZeneca said the data showed an “early trend” signaling a benefit for survival, though it didn’t meet the threshold for statistical significance at this time.
–With assistance from Suzi Ring.
(Updates with analyst comment in penultimate paragraph)
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