By Adria Calatayud


Roche Holding said it plans to halt a mid- and late-stage clinical study for a combination of drugs to treat lung cancer after it failed to meet the trial's primary efficacy goals.

The Swiss pharmaceutical company said Thursday that its investigational tiragolumab drug in combination with its cancer immunotherapy Tecentriq and chemotherapy didn't meet the trial's objectives of progression-free survival and overall survival at its first interim analysis. Tiragolumab is thought to act as an amplifier of the body's immune response to cancer with other cancer drugs, it added.

The drug combination showed reduced efficacy compared to the comparator arm, Roche said. The trial compared tiragolumab, Tecentriq and chemotherapy against Merck's Keytruda and chemotherapy.

"These results are disappointing as it was our hope that this combination might yield improved outcomes for people living with metastatic non-squamous lung cancer," Roche Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development Levi Garraway said.

Safety data were consistent with previous studies, the company said.


Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-04-24 0135ET