FLASCO / Boost for AstraZeneca after key cancer drug sails through clinical trials and could be first to market

Amanda Bridges
February 20, 2017
News

One of AstraZeneca’s most promising experimental drugs in oncology is on track to become a blockbuster treatment after sailing through final clinical trials. Lynparza, part of a new breed of cancer treatments known as Parp inhibitors or DNA Damage Repair (DDR), improved survival rates in patients with a certain type of breast cancer compared with chemotherapy – the current standard of care.

AstraZeneca will submit the drug for approval in the US in the second half of the year. If it gets the green-light from regulators, Lynparza will be the first DDR treatment on the market for breast cancer. The stellar results give the Cambridge-based pharmaceuticals company a leg up over rival pharmaceuticals companies racing to be first to market with new oncology drugs.