Astrazeneca PLC on Friday said that adding its Imfinzi drug to the treatment of bladder cancer was linked to lower mortality rates.
The Cambridge, England-based pharmaceutical company reported positive findings from a phase-three trial of Imfinzi, or durvalumab, which was added to a year of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin induction and maintenance therapy.
The result was ‘clinically meaningful improvement’ in survival of patients with ‘BCG-naïve, high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer’ when compared with BCG treatment only.
According to AstraZeneca, using Imfinzi reduced the risk of death, or high-risk disease recurrence, by 32%, based on a median follow-up of more than five years.
‘The early and sustained disease-free survival benefit observed in the POTOMAC trial demonstrates Imfinzi has the potential to change the course of high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer by extending the time patients live without high-risk disease recurrence or progression,’ said Susan Galbraith, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president of Oncology Haematology R&D.
She added that the findings ‘further validate our strategy to bring novel therapies into earlier-stage disease where they can have the greatest impact on patients’ lives.’
AstraZeneca shares traded 0.8% lower at 12,456.87 pence on Friday afternoon in London.
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