AstraZeneca’s Lynparza fails in gastric cancer combination test

LONDON AstraZeneca’s recently approved ovarian cancer drug Lynparza failed to increase overall survival significantly when given with chemotherapy to patients with gastric cancer in a late-stage trial, the drugmaker said on Wednesday.

The news is a setback for the British drugmaker, which reported positive results with an experimental acute asthma drug on Tuesday, although the result may have limited read-across for Lynparza in other cancer settings.

AstraZeneca said it was disappointed, but noted this particular trial was unusual in using a low dose and combining Lynparza with a standard chemotherapy.

The company has high hopes for Lynparza, which is central to its goal of building a portfolio of compounds targeting DNA damage response (DDR) mechanisms in cancer cells.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter)