AZ’s drug helps prostate cancer patients live longer

Groups push back against Gilead’s pricey drug

NEW YORK, Aug 7, (Agencies): AstraZeneca said on Wednesday its cancer drug, Lynparza, was successful in helping patients with metastatic prostate cancer and certain genetic mutations live longer without the disease worsening, compared with the standard of care. The British drugmaker said the treatment met the main goal in a late-stage study of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and BRCA1/2 or ATM gene mutations. Patients were previously treated with hormonal anticancer therapies.

BRCA and ATM genes are responsible for producing proteins that repair damaged DNA, but can cause cancer growth if the genes mutate.

“This will be a big extension to Lynparza’s market potential and will be seen as good news. After good phase II data this trial was expected to work,” Liberum analysts said in a note.

Prostate cancer is the secondmost common cancer in men, with an estimated 1.3 million new cases diagnosed worldwide in 2018, AstraZeneca said.

Lynparza, which is being jointly developed with Merck , is already approved for advanced ovarian cancer and metastatic breast cancer. The drug is an important growth driver for the British drugmaker as it builds its cancer treatment portfolio.

The treatment belongs to a class of drugs known as PARP inhibitors, which keep cancer cells damaged by chemotherapy from repairing themselves. Lynparza became the first PARP drug to reach the market with a US approval for ovarian cancer in late 2014.

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LOS ANGELES: Gilead Sciences Inc hopes to soon introduce a pricey new pill to prevent HIV in people at risk of contracting the infection, but the drugmaker faces opposition from an unusual source: patient advocates.

Such groups have traditionally lobbied for insurance coverage of newer HIV drugs regardless of expense. But at least three US organizations now question whether Gilead’s Descovy would be the best option for most people at risk of exposure.

A generic version of the current prevention pill, Truvada, is due in the United States next September, which should bring down costs and give many more people access to the therapy, they say.

Their resistance is being echoed by some insurers, including the pharmacy benefit arm of Cigna Inc, which are hinting that price will be a barrier to providing coverage for Descovy.

“Based on the science that we have seen thus far, there is no indication that everyone needs to be taking Descovy,” Tim Horn, director of medication access and pricing at the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) told Reuters.

“We see no reason to push back against commercial payers or Medicaid programs that would move to prefer generic Truvada (for prevention), provided there are guard-rails that do not deny access to Descovy for those who need Descovy,” he said.

Truvada, also made by Gilead, has been used to treat people infected with HIV since 2004. It was approved as a daily pill for preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, in 2012, and remains the only preventive therapy on the US market.