MRK Merck and Co Inc

   By Carlo Martuscelli 
 

AstraZeneca PLC (AZN.LN) said Wednesday that cancer drug Lynparza met its primary objective in a clinical trial, making it the only drug in its class with positive phase 3 study results for prostate cancer.

The treatment, which is being developed in cooperation with Merck & Co. (MRK), was able to slow disease progression in patients with a specific prostate cancer type, AstraZeneca said.

The British pharmaceutical company said that it will present the full results from the PROfound trial at an upcoming medical conference.

Lynparza was administered to previously treated men with prostate cancer that was resistant to castration and with mutations in their BRCA1/2 or ATM genes.

With this result the drug is the only one of its class, known as PARP inhibitors, that has shown positive results in phase 3 trials across ovarian, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancer, Astra said.

Write to Carlo Martuscelli at carlo.martuscelli@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 07, 2019 02:53 ET (06:53 GMT)

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