(Bloomberg) -- AstraZeneca Plc’s Imfinzi extended the lives of patients with bladder cancer, potentially opening up a new market for the blockbuster medicine.
In patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, Imfinzi reduced the risk of disease recurring by 32% when given alongside the current standard of care, interim analysis of a late-stage trial found. The medicine also reduced the risk of death by a quarter when added to current treatments such as chemotherapy and surgery, according to the study involving 1,063 patients.
It’s the first time an immunotherapy drug has significantly improved overall survival in patients with this type of bladder cancer. The new data could change how patients are treated if it’s given the green light. There’s currently only one immunotherapy drug approved for patients after they have had bladder surgery — Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s Opdivo.
Other data on Imfinzi’s efficacy in liver cancer were also presented Monday. The trial reported overall survival at five years in patients receiving Imfinzi in addition to Astra’s Imjudo in a type of liver cancer. Researchers found that the drugs reduced the risk of death by 24% compared to just taking Bayer AG’s Nexavar.
Astra shares rose 0.7% in early London trading, further boosting gains of over 12% this year.
Currently, after receiving chemotherapy and then surgery, around half of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer relapse, Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, said in an interview. The data show those patients “have a chance of a normal life for years,” Galbraith said, describing the treatment regimen as “transformative.”
The data are a boost for Astra after the British pharmaceutical company’s shares suffered their worst week in 14 months. That followed a disappointing update for its experimental lung cancer medicine with partner Daiichi Sankyo Co.
‘Not Perfect’
Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said earlier this week that while the data were “not as perfect” as Astra would have liked, they still amounted to “a strong set of results.” During his tenure, Soriot has increased Astra’s focus on oncology — a bet that has paid off, with a string of successes including Imfinzi.
The bladder cancer results were presented on Sunday at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Barcelona in a session on trials viewed as having the potential to change clinical practice. They were also published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Imfinzi is already approved for multiple other cancers including lung, biliary tract and liver cancers. The drug raked in more than $1.1 billion last quarter, making it Astra’s second-biggest oncology earner.
Astra’s ambition to change clinical practice with Imfinzi in bladder cancer “could become a reality based on the quality of the data” reported at the conference, Bloomberg Intelligence’s Sam Fazeli wrote in a note. It puts Astra a position to beat Bristol’s Opdivo, with a revenue opportunity that “could be north of $1 billion, but this depends on the strength of future data readouts from rivals such as Merck,” Fazeli said.
Astra has four studies looking at Imfinzi in different types of bladder cancer, with the combined market for all those indications being a “a blockbuster plus business opportunity” for the company, Dave Fredrickson, Astra’s executive vice president of the oncology business unit, said in an interview.
In the bladder cancer study, one group received the standard of care, which is chemotherapy and then surgery. The other received the standard of care as well as Imfinzi both before and after their surgery.
(Updates with shares, Bloomberg Intelligence from paragraph four.)
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