AstraZeneca said on Thursday its drug Imfinzi, along with chemoradiotherapy, failed to achieve the main goal of improving survival in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer without the disease worsening.
The late-stage study, dubbed “CALLA,” tested progression-free survival of patients with the combination against chemoradiotherapy alone, the drugmaker said, and the results are seen as a setback for its efforts in a major area of focus.
Imfinzi belongs to the immunotherapy class of treatments that boost the body’s own defences to fight cancer by using antibodies that block or bind to foreign substances in the body.
The treatment, mainly a lung cancer therapy, generated $2.41 billion in 2021 sales, and is currently under development and regulatory review for other cancer indications as well, including tumours in the bladder.
“While the results were not what we hoped for, insights from the trial will advance our understanding and application of immunotherapy across our broad clinical development programme,” Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, said in a statement.
