‘Breakthrough therapy’: a new Chinese drug shows record treatment success against one of the deadliest lung cancers
- Phase 2 clinical trial of sunvozertinib shows 61 per cent anti-tumour activity response, higher than any previous candidates: paper
- It aims to combat a specific type of lung cancer in which tumour harbours ‘EGFR exon 20 insertions’ mutation
For patients wrestling with an uncommon and recalcitrant subtype of lung cancer that will not ease with conventional therapies, such as platinum-based chemotherapy, a Chinese targeted antitumour drug shows encouraging outcomes and offers a beacon of hope.
In a phase 2 clinical trial that enrolled 104 advanced patients and analysed 97 cases, a new drug called sunvozertinib could reportedly achieve a 61 per cent anti-tumour activity response, higher than any previous candidates, according to a team of Chinese scientists who published their results in a paper.
The initial results of this trial were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago in mid-June, and were peer reviewed and published by The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal on December 12.
This new drug was developed by Dizal, a biopharmaceutical company based in eastern China’s Jiangsu province. It aims to combat a specific type of lung cancer in which the tumour harbours a mutation known as “EGFR exon 20 insertions”.
“It’s an impressive outcome because previously other potential candidates could only achieve a response rate below 50 per cent for this lung cancer subgroup, ” said one chief scientist from a major biotech company surnamed Tang, who declined to be identified by his full name.
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In 2020 and 2022 respectively, the drug was granted breakthrough therapy designations from China’s National Medical Products Administration and the US Food and Drug Administration.