A cancer drug co-developed by AstraZeneca (AZN) and US-based pharmaceutical group Merck & Co. (US:MRK) has helped 22 per cent of recipients avoid progression of their pancreatic cancer after two years, against 10 per cent of patients given a placebo.
Lynparza, an inhibitor of the protein poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP), almost doubled the time test patients lived without disease progression from germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic cancer. Mutations in the BRCA gene also increase the likelihood of breast, ovarian, prostate and colon cancers. AstraZeneca says that Lynparza is the first PARP inhibitor to help treat three different cancer types. It is approved for use in more than 60 countries to treat ovarian cancer, while 40 nations permit its use for treatment of breast cancer.
Thirty-four per cent of trial patients saw no disease progression after one year, compared with 15 per cent of recipients who were given a placebo. While this is an encouraging development, we remained wary of the extent to which Astra's debts expanded prior to its recent equity fundraising and its future cash needs.
