The standard option for many patients with non-small cell lung cancer today is AstraZeneca’s targeted therapy Tagrisso. A year and a half ago, data showed this drug could provide patients with what Yale Cancer Center deputy director Roy Herbst at the time called an “extraordinary” 51% reduction in the risk of death. Now, scientists at Johnson & Johnson think they have a drug combination that can take survival for these patients even further.
The combination is a duo of two drugs from J&J and Janssen, Rybrevant and Lazcluze. In a Phase 3 clinical trial, patients who received the combo had longer overall survival than those who received Tagrisso alone, J&J announced in a press release on Tuesday. The full data from the study, called the MARIPOSA trial, are not yet published, but J&J officials told STAT it would soon be presented at an upcoming scientific meeting.
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Beating Tagrisso in overall survival means the combo could have the potential to be a blockbuster drug and extend the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients. “We think this is going to be an absolute game changer and the future of the standard of care for patients with non-small cell lung cancer,” said Biljana Naumovic, president of U.S. oncology solid tumors at J&J.
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