Daiichi Sankyo, Merck Phase 3 Lung-Cancer Study Meets Primary Endpoint

By Colin Kellaher

Merck & Co. and Daiichi Sankyo on Tuesday said one of the drug candidates in their multibillion-dollar collaboration has hit its main goal in a late-stage lung-cancer study.

Merck and Daiichi Sankyo said a Phase 3 study evaluating patritumab deruxtecan in patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer who received prior EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival.

The companies said they plan to share data from the study with global regulatory authorities.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death around the world, with non-small cell lung cancer accounting for more than 80% of all cases, and EGFR-activating mutations occurring in 14% to 38% of non-small cell lung cancer tumors.

Merck and Daiichi Sankyo last year agreed to jointly develop and commercialize a trio of antibody-drug conjugates, including patritumab deruxtecan, in a deal worth up to $22 billion. The companies last month added MK-6070, the key drug candidate from Merck's recent purchase of Harpoon Therapeutics, to the collaboration.

Merck, based in Rahway, N.J., and Japan's Daiichi Sankyo are studying Patritumab deruxtecan as both a monotherapy and in combination with other therapies in a global development program across a range of cancers.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 17, 2024 06:44 ET (10:44 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.