AstraZeneca said on Friday its lung cancer drugs Imfinzi and Imjudo have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The company says the drug is approved for when used along with chemotherapy for treatment of adults with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer.
“This approval underscores the importance of delivering novel treatment combinations that extend survival in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, a complex setting where many patients still face a dismal prognosis,” says Dave Fredrickson, executive vice president of AstraZeneca’s Oncology Business Unit.
The FDA approval was based on the results from the POSEIDON Phase III trial. Patients treated with a limited course of five cycles of the anti-CTLA-4 antibody Imjudo added to Imfinzi plus four cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy experienced a 23% reduction in the risk of death versus a range of chemotherapy options (based on a hazard ratio [HR] of 0.77; 95% CI 0.65-0.92; p=0.00304).
An estimated 33% of patients were alive at two years versus 22% for chemotherapy. This treatment combination also reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 28% compared to chemotherapy alone (HR 0.72; 95% CI 0.60-0.86; p=0.00031).
Updated results from the POSEIDON Phase III trial after approximately four years of follow-up presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2022 and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology demonstrated sustained survival benefit, improving overall survival (OS) by 25% compared to chemotherapy alone (HR 0.75; 95% CI 0.63-0.88).
An estimated 25% of patients treated with the combination were alive at three years versus 13.6% for those treated with chemotherapy alone. The safety profile for Imjudo plus Imfinzi and chemotherapy was consistent with the known profiles of each medicine, and no new safety signals were identified.
