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AstraZeneca\u2019s experimental drug sone-ve helped patients with \u200cadvanced stomach cancer who had received at least two prior treatments to live longer than analysts had expected, according to late-stage trial data presented on Sunday.<\/strong><\/p>\n Patients on the drug lived a median of 10 months, compared with 5 months on their doctor\u2019s choice of chemotherapy, a \u200b53% reduction in the risk of death.<\/p>\n \u201cA 5-month improvement in overall survival is very clinically significant in a \u200bdifficult to treat patient population,\u201d said Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology haematology research and \u2060development at AstraZeneca.<\/p>\n A win on overall survival could boost confidence in the drug\u2019s commercial potential, as it did not \u200breach statistical significance on its other goal of progression-free survival in the study. AstraZeneca has said it expects the drug could \u200bbring in between $3 billion and $5 billion in peak sales, but analysts\u2019 estimates are closer to $1 billion.<\/p>\n The drug, sonesitatug vedotin, or sone-ve, belongs to a class of treatments called antibody drug conjugates, or ADCs, often described as guided missiles as they deliver therapy to cancer cells while \u200bsparing healthy cells.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s another data set that reinforces our vision that we\u2019ve had for a long time, that ADCs can \u200breplace and improve on backbone chemotherapy in many different tumour types,\u201d Galbraith said.<\/p>\n Analysts were expecting an overall survival hazard ratio, or risk \u200cof death, \u2060of about 0.7 or lower, with a gain of at least 2 months.<\/p>\n The detailed data from the 532-patient study was presented at the conference of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Madrid on Sunday, a month after AstraZeneca agreed to invest $2 billion in the biopharmaceutical company Summit Therapeutics and to test sone-ve alongside \u200bSummit\u2019s bispecific antibody ivonescimab.<\/p>\n Patients with \u200bgastroesophageal cancer in AstraZeneca\u2019s \u2060study were enrolled if at least 25% of their tumour cells showed claudin 18.2, a protein found on many cancer cells. The approved treatment for this target requires a 75% cutoff.<\/p>\n Galbraith \u200bsaid the lower threshold could double the number of patients who would be able \u200bto receive treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cI \u2060think that bodes well for the opportunity to move it into the earlier line setting,\u201d she said. Another study of more than 2,000 patients is already testing the drug earlier in a patient\u2019s course of therapy.<\/p>\n HSBC analysts said the miss makes it \u2060harder to \u200bcompare the drug with IBI343, a rival claudin 18.2 therapy being developed \u200bby Takeda and Innovent, which succeeded on its progression-free survival goal in a late-stage study.<\/p>\n Serious side effects were less common with AstraZeneca\u2019s drug, 36.4% versus \u200b44.8% on chemotherapy, though stomach-related side effects were more frequent, at 11.1% versus 6.3%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nASTRAZENECA INVESTS IN AND WORKS WITH SUMMIT THERAPEUTICS<\/strong><\/h3>\n