AstraZeneca wins US approval for 1st-line use of lung cancer drug

U.S. regulators have expanded use of AstraZeneca’s lung cancer drug Tagrisso to include initial treatment of patients with a specific genetic mutation, the company said on Wednesday.

The latest Food and Drug Administration approval includes patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations as detected by an FDA-approved test.

Tagrisso, also known as osimertinib, was already approved for use in patients whose lung cancer worsened after treatment with other EGFR therapies and who have developed a secondary mutation.

The first-line trial found that patients on Tagrisso went 18.9 months on average before their disease worsened, against 10.2 months for those given older medicines that act in a similar way.

Drugs like Tagrisso designed for patients with certain EGFR mutations can hold disease at bay in these patients, but cancer cells often adapt and develop new resistance mechanisms.

AstraZeneca has predicted that Tagrisso will become a $4 billion-a-year seller.