GlaxoSmithKline’s MAGE-A3 fails in Ph III NSCLC trial

There was another setback for UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) with its MAGE-A3 antigen specific cancer immunotherapeutic MAGE-A, the company announced this morning, and seeing its shares slip 1.13% to £16.36.

GSK revealed that an analysis of the MAGRIT trial, a Phase III study of MAGE-A3 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, showed that the trial did not meet its first or second co-primary endpoint as it did not significantly extend disease-free survival (DFS) when compared to placebo in either the overall MAGE-A3 positive population (first co-primary endpoint) or in those MAGE-A3-positive patients who did not receive chemotherapy (second co-primary endpoint).

GSK currently remains blinded to the overall trial data from the analysis of the first two co-primary endpoints to allow for the unbiased generation of a mathematical model to assess the third co-primary endpoint.