Roche’s cobimetinib used with Zelboraf helps advanced melanoma patients live longer

Swiss drug major Roche (ROG: SIX) announced that the Phase III study of investigational medicine cobimetinib, with Zalboraf (vemurafenib), met its primary endpoint.

The study showed that the investigational MEK inhibitor, when used with Roche’s BRAF inhibitor Zelboraf, helped patients with previously-untreated BRAF V600 mutation-positive advanced melanoma live significantly longer. On top of this, their disease did not worsen. The study compared the effect of combining the two drugs with using Zelboraf alone. Any adverse effects observed were consistent with those in a previous study of the combination.

Cobimetinib is designed to selectively block the activity of MEK, one of a series of proteins inside cells that make up a signaling pathway that helps regulate cell division and survival. It binds to MEK while Zelboraf binds to mutant BRAF, another protein on the pathway, to interrupt abnormal signaling that can cause tumors to grow.