AstraZeneca shares drop as lung cancer trial update lags expectations

By Maggie Fick and Ludwig Burger

(Reuters) -AstraZeneca said on Monday an experimental precision drug slowed progression of lung cancer in a late-stage trial, but its shares fell nearly 5% as analysts said the benefits may not be as pronounced as hoped.

The drug, datopotamab deruxtecan, which is being jointly developed with Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo, was shown to prolong progression-free survival compared with standard chemotherapy in patients whose non-small cell lung cancer had returned after one or two prior treatment attempts, AstraZeneca said.

The British drugmaker also said that there were “some” incidences of Grade 5 interstitial lung disease (ILD). Jefferies analysts said Grade 5 events refer to fatal cases.

Shares in AstraZeneca were down 4.7% at 0817 GMT.

The drug belongs to a class known as antibody drug conjugates (ADC), which consist of tumour-seeking monoclonal antibodies that are combined with a cell-killing chemotherapy payload.

AstraZeneca said that the trial would continue as planned to assess the effect of the drug on overall survival of patients, another important efficacy criterion.

Barclays said in an analyst note that the trial was successful but until there is more data, some investors and analysts will have concerns that the treatment may not have the potential to become a treatment of first choice after diagnosis.

“We think that it’s certainly far too early to write off Dato-DXd and we like AZN for a number of reasons, so we would view any negative reaction today as a buying opportunity,” the note read.

(Reporting by Maggie Fick in London, Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt and Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Lucy Raitano in London; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Susan Fenton)