AstraZeneca's Lynparza fails in combination trial

AstraZeneca said on Wednesday that its trial of ovarian cancer drug Lynparza in combination with chemotherapy, compared with paclitaxel hemotherapy alone, did not meet the primary endpoint of overall survival in advanced gastric cancer patients.

The drugmaker said while there was a numerical survival trend in the Lynparza-paclitaxel combination, it did not meet statistical significance.

Sean Bohen, executive vice-president for global medicines development and chief medical officer, said: “While there was a numerical trend for survival benefit with Lynparza plus paclitaxel in the GOLD trial, we are disappointed that this did not reach statistical significance.

“The particular regimen in the GOLD study, at a low dose and in combination with chemotherapy, differs from other Phase III trials in the Lynparza programme. We look forward to presenting the GOLD data and remain confident in Lynparza's clinical activity in a range of tumour types, including its approved use in BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer."