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Hutchmed China Ltd on Wednesday said that Tagrisso plus Orpathys showed a high clinically meaningful response rate in patients with a form of lung cancer. The Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical company noted the results from a phase 2 trial. The results were in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated non-small cell lung cancer with high levels of MET overexpression and/or amplification, defined as IHC90+ and/or FISH10+, whose disease progressed on treatment with Tagrisso. MET is a tyrosine kinase receptor that has an essential role in normal cell development. MET overexpression and/or amplification can lead to tumour growth and the metastatic progression of cancer cells. Tagrisso is a cancer drug by Cambridge-based AstraZeneca, while Orpathys is jointly developed by AstraZeneca and Hutchmed, and commercialised by Astra. Orpathys is approved in China for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer with MET exon 14 skipping alterations who have progressed following prior systemic therapy or are unable to receive chemotherapy. Orpathys is also known as savolitinib, while Tagrisso is known as osimertinib. Myung-Ju Ahn, principal investigator in the Savannah phase II trial, said: ‘These results show that adding savolitinib, a selective MET-inhibitor, while continuing osimertinib treatment helped to deliver a meaningful response among patients whose disease progressed, providing a potential new treatment option following standard-of-care osimertinib.’ Susan Galbraith, executive vice president at AstraZeneca’s Oncology research & development unit, said: ‘These positive Savannah results show the benefit of a targeted treatment approach in EGFR-mutated lung cancer patients who experience MET-driven resistance. ‘The improved response rates from Orpathys added to Tagrisso, which is the backbone EGFR-mutated lung cancer therapy, reinforce the importance of identifying MET aberration and validate our combination strategy to address resistance while allowing continued Tagrisso treatment.’ AstraZeneca shares rose 1.3% to 12,004.00 pence each on Wednesday morning in London, while Hutchmed China shares jumped 5.5% to 299.70p each. Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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