Lilly’s combo therapy succeeds in late-stage lung cancer study

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women, according to the American Cancer Society

Eli Lilly and Co’s combination cancer treatment met the main goal of a late-stage clinical trial testing it on patients with a form of lung cancer, the drugmaker announced recently.

Previously untreated patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer taking a combination of Lilly’s Cyramza and Roche’s erlotinib went longer before their disease started to worsen, study results showed.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women, and each year, more people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined, according to the American Cancer Society.

Cyramza, which made more than $800 million in revenue for Lilly in 2018, is approved in the United States to treat other forms of cancers, including stomach and another type of lung cancer.

The Indianapolis-based drugmaker plans to start global regulatory submissions for its Cyramza combination therapy in mid-2019.