Daiichi Sankyo will not proceed with patritumab lung cancer trial

Japanese drug major Daiichi Sankyo (TYO: 4568) yesterday announced that the two-part Phase III HER3-Lung study of patritumab will not proceed into the second part, with the news pushing the firm’s shares down 2.7% to 2,508 yen.

This decision followed the recommendation of an independent data monitoring committee (DMC) that concluded that the first part of the study (Part A) did not meet the pre-defined efficacy criteria required to proceed with Part B of the study. There were no safety concerns identified by the DMC.

The HER3-Lung study is a global study evaluating the investigational HER3 inhibitor patritumab, in combination with erlotinib, Roche's EGFR inhibitor Tarceva, in patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer not selected for EGFR mutation but stratified by tumor expression of heregulin.