(Bloomberg) -- Shares of AstraZeneca Plc and Daiichi Sankyo Co. tumbled after the pair’s lung cancer drug showed mixed results in a late-stage trial.
Astra dropped as much as 5.4% in early London trading, paring gains of 20% since the start of the year. Daiichi Sankyo, traded in Tokyo, fell as much as 10%, the most since Aug. 5.
Their experimental cancer drug Dato-DXd helped some people in the trial live longer, but the results across all patients weren’t statistically significant. The full data from the study confirms findings published by the drug companies in May that showed patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer were able to live longer on the drug.
The result is “somewhat negative,” Hiroshi Wada, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., said in a note. Even so, the drug is likely to be approved given the extension of overall survival and significant improvement in progression-free survival, Wada said.
The medicine, an antibody drug-conjugate whose full name is datopotamab deruxtecan, ferries a powerful chemotherapy directly to tainted cells to kill the cancer while sparing their healthy counterparts.
The results were “a bit disappointing” said Morgan Stanley’s Shinichiro Muraoka in a note.
While the overall survival results in the total trial population numerically favored Dato-DXd compared to docetaxel — the current standard of care treatment — they did not reach statistical significance, the Japanese pharmaceutical company said in a statement. The drug has already shown that it can stave off cancer’s worsening.
Data on overall survival is often more severe than progression-free survival figures because patients can use the drug after cancer has advanced, Hidemaru Yamaguchi, an analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Japan Inc., wrote in a note. He added that Citi expects an application based on the latter to be approved.
Separately, Boehringer Ingelheim said that an early study of its oral pill for lung cancer showed promise and could potentially expand available options for a hard-to-treat patient group.
--With assistance from Lisa Pham.
(Updates with Astra share price drop from first paragraph)
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