Science News Round up: AstraZeneca's Lynparza shown to put brakes on ovarian cancer

Roche takes on Loxo, Bayer in gene-defined cancer class

Roche's entrectinib cancer pill was shown to shrink tumors in 57 percent of patients within a group that can only be identified via genetic profiling, as the Swiss drugmaker challenges an alliance of Bayer and Loxo Oncology in a new targeted treatment area. The trial results on patients with a gene anomaly known as NTRK fusion, which occurs in less than 1 percent across a range of tumor types, were presented at the annual congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Munich on Sunday.

Merck KGaA says might strike partnership deal this year

German drugmaker Merck KGaA might agree to partnership deals to jointly develop two of its most promising experimental medicines with a rival as early as this year, but more likely in 2019, its drug research and development chief said on Sunday. "It's possible even as early as the end of the year but that's really a stretch - or sometime in 2019," Luciano Rossetti told Reuters at the annual congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Munich on Sunday.

Roche lands Tecentriq trial win still trails Merck in lung cancer

Roche's Tecentriq plus chemotherapy boosted lung cancer patients' survival by nearly five months, study data released on Monday showed, underscoring benefits of the Swiss group's immunotherapy but still leaving it trailing a rival's drug. Tecentriq added to a chemotherapy backbone of carboplatin/nab-paclitaxel in first-line non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) boosted median overall survival (OS) to 18.6 months, Roche said, compared to 13.9 months for those getting just chemotherapy.

AstraZeneca's Lynparza shown to put brakes on ovarian cancer

An AstraZeneca drug that blocks a cancer cell's ability to repair its genetic code greatly reduced the risk of ovarian cancer worsening in a phase III trial, underpinning its lead against two U.S. rivals in the same class. Given as a maintenance therapy to reinforce initial chemotherapy, Lynparza halted or reversed tumor growth in 60 percent of patients three years into the trial. Only 28 percent of those in a chemotherapy-only control group were spared tumor progression at that stage.

(With inputs from agencies.)