AstraZeneca’s stomach cancer drug clears bar for extending overall survival in late-stage study

By Bhanvi Satija MADRID, Oct 25 (Reuters) AstraZeneca s experimental drug sone-ve helped patients with advanced stomach cancer who had received at least two prior treatments to live longer than analysts had expected, according to late-stage trial ​data presented on Sunday. Patients on the conjugate drug that links an ‌antibody to a chemotherapy payload lived a median of 10 months, compared with 5 months on their doctor s choice of chemotherapy, a 53% reduction in the risk of death. Analysts were expecting an overall survival hazard ratio, or risk of death, of about 0.7 or lower, with a gain ‌of ​at least 2 months. A 5-month improvement in overall survival ⁠is very clinically significant in ⁠a difficult to treat patient population, said Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology haematology research and development at AstraZeneca. ASTRAZENECA INVESTS IN AND WORKS WITH SUMMIT THERAPEUTICS The detailed data from the 532-patient study was presented at the conference ​of the