(Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC on Monday said new drugs, developed in partnership with Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd, showed positive results in patients with solid tumours, lung and breast cancer.

The Cambridge-based pharmaceutical firm said Enhertu or trastuzumab deruxtecan continued to demonstrate clinically meaningful and durable responses in previously treated patients with HER2-expressing advanced solid tumours.

The positive results came from the ongoing Destiny-PanTumor02 Phase Two trial. Enhertu, which is being jointly developed and commercialised by AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo, showed a median progression-free survival time of 6.9 months, a confirmed objective response rate of 37.1% and a median duration of response of 11.3 months.

"These updated data...continue to illustrate the importance of HER2 as an actionable biomarker across a range of studied solid tumour types," said Cristian Massacesi, AstraZeneca's chief medical officer and Oncology chief development officer. "Enhertu has the potential to offer improved outcomes for specific patients with previously treated HER2-expressing cancers, and we hope to bring this important medicine to patients as quickly as possible."

Also on Monday, AstraZeneca said datopotamab deruxtecan, Dato-DXd for short, demonstrated a statistically significant improvement for the primary endpoint of progression-free survival in patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

The Tropion-Lung01 Phase Three trial found that Dato-DXd reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 25% compared with current standard of care docetaxel.

Furthermore, Dato-DXd in the Tropion-Breast01 Phase Three trial showed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival in previously treated breast cancer patients. It reduced the risk of progression or death by 37% compared with chemotherapy.

Earlier on Monday, AstraZeneca announced that the European Commission had approved Enhertu as a treatment for adult lung cancer patients, showing a 49% objective response rate and 16.8 month median duration of response based on Destiny-Lung02 trial results.

AstraZeneca shares were down 2.1% at USD62.48 in New York on Monday.

By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter

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