Chinese drug hailed as ‘breakthrough therapy’ shows promising results against lung cancer: Report

A drug manufactured by a Chinese firm has been found to be especialy effective against an uncommon and stubborn type of lung cancer, reported South China Morning Post (SCMP). The drug has been found to be effective against lung cancer that, among other things, does not respond to platinum-based chemotherapy. SCMP reported that the drug has been designated breakthrough therapy by China’s National Medical Products Administration and the US Food and Drug Administration.

The drug, called sunvozertinib, achieved 61 per cent anti-tumour response in a phase 2 clinical trial in which 104 advanced patients were enrolled and of these 97 cases were analysed, says SCMP.

Initial results obtained in this trial were peer-reviewed and published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal on December 12.

“It’s an impressive outcome because previously other potential candidates could only achieve a response rate below 50 per cent for this lung cancer subgroup,” said a scientist identified by SCMP just as Tang.

Dizal, a company in the Jiangsu province in eastern China, has made Sunvozertinib. The developmental efforts of the drug were focused on making it capable of combating lung cancer in which the tumour has a mutation called “EGFR exon 20 insertions”

The non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) reportedly has links with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutation.

“Patients and healthcare providers have long sought hope in the form of effective treatments that offer respite from relentless disease progression,” said oncologist Hidetoshi Hayashi, of the Kindai University Faculty of Medicine in Japan, as quoted by SCMP.

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The news outlet said that the phase 2 trial of sunvozertinib was carried out in 37 medical centres in China. The patients enrolled for the study between July 2021 and May 2022.

The study yielded that 59 patients showed the desired response. They reached an "objective response rate (ORR) of 61 per cent.