Roche to halt lung cancer trial

Roche is to end a novel lung cancer treatment trial, the Swiss company confirmed on Thursday, following "disappointing" results.

The Skyscraper-06 study was evaluating novel immune checkpoint inhibitor tiragolumab, part of a new class of drugs known as anti-TIGIT.

It was offered in combination with cancer immunotherapy drug Tecentriq and chemotherapy as an initial treatment for people with previously untreated, locally advanced unresectable or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

However, Roche said the study had failed to meet its primary endpoints of progress-free survival at primary analysis, and overall survival at first interim analysis.

It also showed reduced efficacy compared to the comparator arm, which included Merck’s established cancer treatment Keytruda.

Levi Garraway, head of global product development at Roche, said: "These results are disappointing, as it was our hope that this combination might yield improved outcomes for people living with metastatic non-squamous lung cancer.

"We will leverage the learnings to inform our scientific understanding of the anti-TIGIT pathways and new avenues in cancer research."

An earlier trial of tiragolumab was halted in 2022 after it failed to slow disease progression on a different kind of lung cancer patient group.

The phase II/III Skyscraper-06 study was randomised, placebo-controlled and double-blind, and featured 542 patients. The primary endpoints were overall survival and progression-free survival.

As at 1030 BST, shares in Roche were trading 2% lower.