(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday its combination drug helped increase the duration of no progress in a type of non small-cell lung cancer in patients.
The therapy met the main goals of the study that tested a combination of antibody treatment Rybrevant and experimental drug lazertinib against chemotherapy in patients with a more common mutation in EGFR protein that causes rapid cell growth.
J&J’s therapy was tested in patients in whom the disease progressed even after they were treated with AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso.
Rybrevant received approval in 2021 for only 2-3% of non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients – a small subset that had a specific type of mutation in EGFR protein.
J&J is also testing its combination treatment in a head-to-head study with Tagrisso, and expects data from the trial by the end of this year. If successful, the company expects the therapy to become a first-line treatment for NSCLC patients with the mutation.
Tagrisso generated over $5.4 billion in 2022.
(Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Shinjini Ganguli)
