Eli Lilly and Co. said its oral medicine selpercatinib helped reduce tumor size in lung cancer patients with a rare gene abnormality.
The Indianapolis-based
NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer, affecting more than 2 million people a year. RET-altered lung cancer is rare and mostly affects patients with no or minimal exposure to tobacco.
As of June 17, the cut-off date for the data readout, the median duration of response — a measure of how long a patient's tumor responds to treatment — was 20.3 months. Median progression-free survival, which measures how long a treatment helps prevent a cancer from growing, was 18.4 months.
Selpercatinib, also known as LOXO-292, is being studied in a total of 531 patients who did not get better after receiving treatments in the past. Eli Lilly got access to the drug after it acquired Loxo Oncology Inc. for $8 billion in January. The medicine holds the breakthrough-therapy designation in the U.S. to treat the condition.
