AstraZeneca shares fall after cancer drug trial disappoints investors

Receive free AstraZeneca PLC updates

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest AstraZeneca PLC news every morning.

AstraZeneca failed to meet investor expectations for a new lung cancer drug, despite announcing positive results showing a statistically significant improvement over chemotherapy. 

Shares in the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker fell 5 per cent on Monday morning after it published the first results from its phase 3 trial for datopotamab deruxtecan, which it is developing with Daiichi Sankyo. 

Investors were hoping that the drug would become as successful as Enhertu, another cancer treatment AstraZeneca developed with the Japanese group, and the companies have been investing heavily in trials for different types of cancer.

The trial studied patients who had advanced non-small cell lung cancer. It found that drug could stall the progression of a patient’s cancer for longer than the current standard of care, a chemo drug called docetaxel. 

But analysts at Barclays and Credit Suisse said shareholders will be concerned that AstraZeneca did not declare its results “clinically meaningful” in its press release. AstraZeneca said clinical significance is a “subjective assessment” and that further analysis is required to interpret the results. It added that it is encouraged by the early trend in overall survival data.

Credit Suisse analysts said in a note that they had expected disappointment at the news because of “high investor expectations for a positive clinically-meaningful result” in a setting that is “challenging”, because patients had already tried at least two other drugs. 

They added that many investors had wrongly linked the success of this first trial to the entire programme of trials “increasing sensitivity to the result”, when it could actually be more effective if used earlier.

Barclays analysts added that investors may also worry about some patients suffering a side effect that causes lung scarring. AstraZeneca said the same side effects were seen in previous trials and that most of the incidents of lung scarring were “low grade”.

Susan Galbraith, executive vice-president, oncology research and development at AstraZeneca said that the results provide “compelling evidence for the potential role” that the antibody drug conjugate can play in treating lung cancer patients. 

AstraZeneca was not able to publish data on whether the drug extended patients’ lives at this interim analysis. But that could be a positive sign that patients are living longer, so there is not yet enough data to compare how long they live for. 

Ken Takeshita, global head of oncology R&D at Daiichi Sankyo, said it plans to share the data with regulators to discuss next steps. 

Antibody drug conjugates are a new more targeted way to deliver chemotherapy, which aim to be more effective and reduce side effects. Datopotamab deruxtecan uses the same antibody to deliver a chemotherapy payload to the tumour as Enhertu, a drug that is transforming the care of some cancer patients, especially in breast cancer.

Shares in AstraZeneca were down 5 per cent to £107.41 in early trading in London.