AstraZeneca plans to move three cancer drug candidates into Ph III

Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) this morning (May 16) announced that it will be moving three of its cancer compounds: moxetumomab pasudotox, olaparib and selumetinib into Phase III clinical development.

MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s global biologics research and development arm, has enrolled the first patient in the Phase III clinical trial for moxetumomab pasudotox. The trial is sponsored by the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP), a program within the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis at the US National Cancer Institute, and will evaluate moxetumomab pasudotox as a potential treatment in adult patients with hairy cell leukemia who have not responded to or relapsed after standard therapy.

The company also announced that it will present new Phase II data for olaparib, its investigational oral poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Congress in Chicago on May 31 to June 4, demonstrating its potential as a maintenance treatment for platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer patients with BRCA gene mutations. Based on these data, AstraZeneca is planning to move olaparib forward to Phase III clinical trials for this patient population in the second half of 2013.