AstraZeneca's Breast Cancer Drug Dato-DXd Demonstrates Strong Efficacy in Clinical Trial

Intelligent Finance APP learned that datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd), a breast cancer drug jointly developed by AstraZeneca (AZN.US) and Japan's Daiichi Sankyo, demonstrated promising efficacy in a trial, indicating that the drug could become AstraZeneca's best-selling medication. Compared with chemotherapy, the drug showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in progression-free survival for patients with inoperable or HER2-negative cancer.

This study will continue to confirm whether this drug can help patients live longer compared to those receiving chemotherapy. AstraZeneca stated that it has observed a trend of improvement. No new safety issues were found with the drug.

Dato-DXd is also used to treat lung cancer. In July this year, the market was disappointed with the preliminary results of a phase III trial for lung cancer treatment, causing AstraZeneca's stock price to plummet.

Compared with traditional therapies that harm the entire body, Dato-DXd directly targets infected cells for more effective chemotherapy, killing cancer cells while preserving healthy ones. AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo previously developed a similar cancer drug, Enhertu, which extended the lives of breast cancer patients with limited treatment options.

AstraZeneca agrees to pay up to $60 billion to gain the rights to co-develop the two cancer therapies with Daiichi-Sankyo. Jefferies analysts estimate that Dato-DXd could generate annual sales of up to $180 billion, while Enhertu’s annual sales may reach $125 billion.

As of press time, AstraZeneca was up 1.95% in pre-market trading, at $68.33.