Niels Winstedt | Getty Images
Johnson & Johnson Tuesday She said her lung cancer regimen keeps people alive at least a year longer than AstraZenecaTagrisso, the drug of choice for a certain type of lung cancer.
Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that its two drugs — Rybrevant and Lazcluze — demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in survival compared with Tagrisso in a pivotal trial. Johnson & Johnson executives said in an interview that the company expects the benefit to be for at least a year and possibly longer. The company plans to present the full results at a medical meeting later this year.
“This is an absolute firebrand,” said Biljana Naumovich, MD, head of the U.S. solid tumors division at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines. “People were looking for an all-around survival difference.”
Johnson & Johnson is trying to replace AstraZeneca's blockbuster Tagrisso, a once-daily pill that has transformed treatment for non-small cell lung cancer with EGFR mutations and extended median survival to about three years. These genetic errors cause cancer cells to multiply. They are responsible for 10% to 15% of lung cancer cases in the United States, according to the Lung Cancer Institute American Lung Association.
Johnson & Johnson executives hailed the finding as a game-changer that should change the treatment of this type of lung cancer. But there's no guarantee that doctors and patients will all switch to Rybrevant and Lazcluze since the regimen comes with more side effects and requires intravenous infusion every few weeks, said Dr. Stephen Liu, director of thoracic oncology and chief of developmental therapeutics at Georgetown University's Lombardy Comprehensive Hospital. . Cancer Center.
“I think announcing that this leads to people living longer will impose a tougher outlook,” Liu said.
He wants to see who benefits most so he can treat these patients more aggressively while sparing patients less likely to respond. Rybrevant and Lazcluze can cause people to develop a rash and cause their nails to split.
As with Tagrisso, the Johnson & Johnson regimen blocks the EGFR protein to prevent cancer cells from growing. It also targets MET, a common pathway that cancer uses to develop drug resistance.
Johnson & Johnson expects annual sales of Rybrevant and Lazcluze to reach $5 billion. Tagrisso will bring in about $6 billion for AstraZeneca in 2023.
