AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN, NASDAQ:AZN) has suffered its second pipeline setback in little over a month after halting a late-stage lung cancer trial, even as shares in the drugmaker rose on Monday.
The FTSE 100 company said its drug Volrustomig, combined with chemotherapy, was unlikely to improve survival for lung cancer patients when measured against existing treatments.
The decision to stop the phase three trial followed a recommendation from the Independent Data Monitoring Committee after a planned review of the data.
It marks a further blow after billions were wiped off AstraZeneca's market value in July, when it abandoned a trial of the heart disease drug Wainua.
Susan Galbraith, an executive vice president at the company, described the latest decision as a disappointment.
She said the group would learn from the trial and remained determined to keep developing new medicines from its pipeline in its efforts to improve outcomes for lung cancer patients.
Lung cancer is the biggest cause of cancer death worldwide, accounting for almost one in four cases, or 23%.
AstraZeneca said it would press on with trials of Volrustomig in other cancers, including cervical cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and mesothelioma.
The Anglo-Swedish group, which is headquartered in Cambridge, also reported some success on Monday.
It said its Enhertu treatment had shown a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in delaying disease progression for patients with non-small cell lung cancer, and would move into a phase three trial.
Galbraith said the aggressive form of the disease often affected younger patients and had historically offered limited first-line targeted options, making the results an important step forward.
In a separate development, the company said late-stage results for its Tagrisso drug, combined with Orpathys, reinforced Tagrisso as a backbone therapy for another type of lung cancer.
Shares in AstraZeneca rose as much as 2% in early Monday trading.
Axel Rudolph, chief technical analyst at IG, said the Volrustomig setback was another reminder of the risks facing the company's growth story.
He said the investment case remained supported by solid fundamentals and a robust late-stage pipeline, but that AstraZeneca needed positive clinical developments to rebuild confidence.
