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AstraZeneca gets bad news on lung cancer trial

The pharma giant has received a setback in its lung cancer trial
August 21, 2019

With a clinical pipeline like AstraZeneca’s (AZN) the odd setback is to be expected, particularly when you consider that it has ploughed about a quarter of its revenues into research & development (R&D) over the past three years.

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The pharma giant revealed that its phase III NEPTUNE trial of a dual immuno-oncology therapy targeting advanced lung cancer did not demonstrate better overall survival rates for patients than those on standard chemotherapy treatments. A combination of Imfinzi (a human monoclonal antibody) with tremelimumab was used in the trial on previously untreated patients with stage four non-small cell lung cancer and what the group describes as “a high tumour mutational burden”.

Though disappointing for shareholders, the market took the announcement in its stride. However, even if further clinical trials prove successful, analysts at Shore Capital make the point that “chemotherapy is a well-established treatment modality in [non-small cell lung cancer] and asking physicians to abandon it completely in the place of dual checkpoint inhibitor therapies is not simple”, although it should be noted that group expenditure is now shifting from R&D to marketing channels.