Lynparza

Merck (NYSE:MRK) has announced that it will stop the Phase 3 LYNK-003 trial focused on Lynparza (olaparib) with or without bevacizumab for patients with unresectable or metastatic colorectal cancer.

Two experimental arms in the trial, one focused on Lynparza as monotherapy or in combination with the immunotherapy drug bevacizumab, will be suspended.

The primary endpoint of the trial was progression-free survival.

The study focused on patients without progression after first-line therapy.

Merck made the decision after receiving feedback from an independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) following review from an interim analysis.

The PARP inhibitor Lynparza was first developed by KuDOS Pharmaceuticals and the University of Pennsylvania.

AstraZeneca acquired KuDOS Pharmaceuticals in 2005.

In 2021, the drug jointly earned AstraZeneca and Merck $3.7 billion.

The two companies continue to develop Lynparza for a variety of on…

Lynparza (olaparib) significantly reduced death risk when treating germline BRCA-mutated high-risk early breast cancer in the Phase 3 OlympiA study, according to AstraZeneca (LON: AZN).

Lynparza recently became the first FDA-approved medicine targeting BRCA mutations in the same type of cancer.

The drug is the first poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor to show an overall survival benefit in early breast cancer, according to AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca developed the drug with Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK), a company known as MSD outside of the U.S.

The OlympiA study showed that olaparib had a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival (OS) compared to placebo in the adjuvant treatment of patients with germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm) high-risk human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative early breast cancer.

Patients in the study had received earlier local treatment and standard neoadjuvan…