AstraZeneca recovers as lung cancer drug gets US thumbs-up

Shareholders in AstraZeneca breathed a sigh of relief today after its lung cancer drug, which suffered a blow as part of last week’s shock trial failure, was waved through by the US regulator.

Imfinzi was granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the US Food and Drug Administration, speeding up the development of the drug, which will treat early-stage lung cancer sufferers who have not responded to chemotherapy.

It comes just days after the pharma giant suffered a blow when initial results from its key Mystic lung cancer trial came back negative.

The flop included Imfinzi, which was being combined with another treatment.

Shares in the drugs giant, which tanked 15% last Thursday, recovered 81.5p, or 1.8%, today to 4563p.

Astra’s chief medical officer Sean Bohen said: “Imfinzi is the first immuno-oncology medicine to show a clinically significant benefit in this earlier, non-metastatic setting, so after the Breakthrough Designation we hope to bring it to patients as soon as possible.”