AstraZeneca’s breast cancer drug trial shows positive results

AstraZeneca has announced positive results from its Phase III OLYMPIAD trial comparing Lynparza (olaparib) tablets to physician’s choice of a standard of care chemotherapy for the patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer harbouring germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

The results showed that Lynparza improved patients progression-free survival (PFS) compared with those who received chemotherapy (capecitabine, vinorelbine or eribulin), the company said.

In the full year and fourth quarter results, AZ said it was spending over 40% on the Oncology pipeline of R&D. Z currently has 11 more drugs in third phase clinical trials, mainly in Oncology, Cardiovascular, Metabolic Diseases and Respiratory.

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Sean Bohen, Executive Vice President, Global Medicines Development and Chief Medical Officer at AstraZeneca, said: “These results are positive news for patients with BRCA-mutated metastatic breast cancer, a disease with a high unmet need, and are the first positive Phase III data for a PARP inhibitor beyond ovarian cancer. This is highly encouraging for the development of our broad portfolio which aims to treat multiple cancers by targeting DNA damage response pathways.”