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Roche-Chugai's Tecentriq approved in Japan for additional lung cancer indication

Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. said its parent Roche Holding AG's immunotherapy drug Tecentriq received approval in Japan for an additional indication in lung cancer.

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare approved Tecentriq, or atezolizumab, to treat extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, or ES-SCLC. The drug was first approved in the country in January 2018 to treat non-small cell lung cancer that has advanced, recurred or cannot be removed through surgery.

ES-SCLC is a type of lung cancer type that has spread too far for surgery or radiation to work as initial therapy, leaving patients with limited options for treatment.

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The new approval is based on results from a study called IMpower133, in which patients treated with Tecentriq plus chemotherapy survived longer than those treated with chemotherapy alone, meeting the study's main goal. Patients also showed progression-free survival — which gauges risk of disease worsening or death — another main goal of the trial. No new safety risks were found.

In March, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Tecentriq in combination with chemotherapy for treating adults with ES-SCLC. Tecentriq is one of Swiss drugmaker Roche's top-selling products.

In the U.S., Tecentriq is also indicated for urothelial carcinoma and a type of breast cancer.

Tecentriq is part of a class of tumor-targeting drugs called checkpoint inhibitors. The therapy blocks the PD-L1 protein on cancer cells from linking with a partner arm on healthy cells — an interaction that prevents the spread of the disease.