Iressa Near To Sanofi's Taxotere In Lung Cancer

Lung-cancer patients who took AstraZeneca PLC's (AZN) Iressa drug lived about as long as those taking Sanofi-Aventis's (SNY) Taxotere chemotherapy, according to a new study.

AstraZeneca said Wednesday the late-stage study compared overall survival between Iressa and Taxotere in 1,466 patients with advanced, non-small cell lung cancer who had received previous treatment.

The study showed Iressa was "non-inferior" to Taxotere. AstraZeneca said it was the first time a drug in Iressa's category has proven non-inferiority for overall survival, relative to chemotherapy, in a head-to-head Phase 3 study in patients with previously treated non-small cell lung cancer.

The data were presented at the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Korea. AstraZeneca didn't provide specific survival figures in a press release.

AstraZeneca also said Iressa had a more favorable "tolerability profile" and "superior quality of life" for patients, versus Taxotere.

Iressa is a type of targeted therapy known as an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor. AstraZeneca initially had high hopes for the drug but they were dashed when a study in 2004 showed that Iressa failed to extend lives in lung cancer patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration subsequently restricted use of the drug to people who are benefiting or have benefited from it. Iressa has been shown, however, to be effective in treating Asians with lung cancer.

Iressa is available in 36 countries, but not in most major European countries. Global sales were $113 million for the first six months of 2007. Taxotere sales were EU402 million in the first half of the year.

AstraZeneca said it's sharing the latest data with regulatory agencies.