TAGRISSO granted FDA breakthrough therapy status in EGFR-mutated lung cancer

AstraZeneca’s TAGRISSO (osimertinib) has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) in the US for the adjuvant treatment of patients with early-stage (IB, II and IIIA) epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated (EGFRm) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after complete tumor resection with curative intent.

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) BTD is designed to accelerate the development and regulatory review of potential new medicines that are intended to treat a serious condition and address a significant unmet medical need. The new medicine needs to have shown encouraging early clinical results that demonstrate substantial improvement on a clinically significant endpoint over available medicines.

While up to 30% of patients with NSCLC may be diagnosed early enough to have potentially curative surgery, disease recurrence is common in early-stage disease and nearly half of patients diagnosed in Stage IB, and over three quarters of patients diagnosed in Stage IIIA, experience recurrence within five years.1-6

José Baselga, Executive Vice President, Oncology R&D said: “Patients with early-stage EGFRm lung cancer often experience recurrence even after successful surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, yet there are currently no approved targeted treatments to improve outcomes. The Phase III ADAURA trial with TAGRISSO demonstrated an unprecedented level of clinical benefit in these patients, and we are working closely with the FDA to deliver this potentially curative treatment to patients as quickly as possible.”

The FDA granted the BTD based on data from the Phase III ADAURA trial, which were also recently presented during the plenary session of the American Society of Clinical Oncology ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program.

In the trial, TAGRISSO demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in disease-free survival (DFS) in the adjuvant treatment of Stage IB-IIIA EGFRm NSCLC patients, reducing the risk of disease recurrence or death by 79% (HR 0.21; 95% CI 0.16-0.28; p<0.0001) in a key secondary endpoint. In April 2020, an Independent Data Monitoring Committee recommended the trial to be unblinded two years early based on its determination of overwhelming efficacy.

TAGRISSO is approved for the 1st-line treatment of patients with metastatic EGFRm NSCLC and for the treatment of metastatic EGFR T790M mutation-positive NSCLC in the US, Japan, China, the EU and many other countries around the world.