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Roche (OTCMKTS:RHHBY) has released two more groups of promising outcomes for cancer patients taking the PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab.
Roche (OTCMKTS:RHHBY) has released two more groups of promising outcomes for cancer patients taking the PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab.
According to Fierce Biotech:
[This is] setting the stage for an accelerated approval campaign on both sides of the Atlantic as one expert in the field touts the pharma giant’s chances of realigning the way lung cancer is treated.
Appearing at the 2015 European Cancer Congress, investigators for Roche reported that atezo was linked with a 7.7-month survival advantage over chemo among lung cancer patients defined by a significant expression of PD-L1. Twenty-seven percent of the same type of patient saw tumors shrink while in another mid-stage trial an equal percentage of bladder cancer patients with high levels of PD-L1 expression also responded.
“These results may represent the first major treatment advancement in advanced bladder cancer in nearly 30 years,” said Sandra Horning, Roche’s chief of global product development, who also touted the company’s lung cancer results. “We are encouraged that responses to atezolizumab were ongoing in the large majority of people when the study results were assessed.”
Atezolizumab’s success is central to Roche’s pipeline story. The pharma giant has been largely sitting out the deal game in biotech this year, put off by the high valuations that clinical stage assets are fetching these days. While Merck ($MRK) and Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) seized the first two pioneering approvals for PD-1 drugs, Roche was mounting a major assault on the PD-L1 side of the equation, looking for pivotal data from 11 late-stage studies that it’s drug could be a superior choice for patients whose tumors express high levels of PD-L1.
Click here to read the full article from Fierce Biotech.