Novartis' canakinumab misses in another Phase III lung cancer trial

25 October 2021

Shares of Novartis (NOVN: VX) dipped around 1% this morning as it revealed that its cancer drug canakinumab had disappointed in another lung cancer study.

The CANOPY-1 Phase III study did not demonstrate the statistically-significant primary endpoints of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients treated with canakinumab (ACZ885) combined with pembrolizumab plus platinum-based doublet chemotherapy, compared to patients receiving placebo in combination with pembrolizumab plus platinum-based doublet chemotherapy.

The trial data, however, showed potentially clinically meaningful improvements in both PFS and OS in pre-specified subgroups of patients based on the baseline inflammatory biomarker, hs-CRP, as well as other biomarker-defined subgroups. These data support further evaluation of canakinumab in lung cancer, the Swiss pharma giant pointed out.

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