AstraZeneca Lung Cancer Drug Gets FDA Approval

AstraZeneca lung cancer drug gets FDA approval after outstanding results in clinical trials. Although there are several other drugs on the market targeting lung cancer, the new AstraZeneca drug is specifically designed to target non-small cell lung cancer. This is the most common form of lung cancer.

The new AstraZeneca drug is known as AZD9291. On the market it will feature as Tagrisso. The drug is administered as pills and has been optimised for prescriptions of one tablet of 80 milligrams per day.

As AstraZeneca lung cancer drug gets FDA approval, the medical community welcomes the potential Tagrisso has presented in clinical trials. AZD9291 has been tested against a cell mutation known as T790M. This mutation is a feared protective barrier that keeps existing cancer pills from affecting lung cancer cells.

Currently, Tagrisso is the only drug that has been approved for patients presenting metastatic EGFR T790M mutation non-small cell lung cancer. The price of Tagrisso hasn’t been revealed yet. Nonetheless, the British pharmaceutical company announced that by next week, all details will be ready.

Analysts’ estimates suggest that with the FDA approval Tagrisso could bring in an estimated 3 billion dollars per year. By 2020, the figure could drop to 1.1 billion dollars, remaining a leader on the market provided other drugs aren’t developed meanwhile.

With years worth of expertise, AstraZeneca has built on strong oncology pharmaceutics heritage to bring Tagrisso to those in need. In a press release, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot stated that the FDA approval is a milestone for patients who are in need of new options to treat non-small cell lung cancer.

Lung cancer represents the leading cause of death among all types of cancer patients. Lung cancer amounts to over one third of cancer deaths. In the U.S. reports show that 85 percent of lung cancer cases are representative for the non-small cell lung cancer category. 15 percent of lung cancer cases are mutation-positive. Against this background, the approval of Tagrisso is indeed an acknowledgement of the urgency of the situation.

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