#AS­CO21: As­traZeneca takes a swing at J&J and Ab­b­Vie's Im­bru­vi­ca with long-term da­ta from head-to-head tri­al

A year and a half af­ter get­ting its next-gen BTK in­hibitor ap­proved in chron­ic lym­pho­cyt­ic leukemia (CLL), As­traZeneca is back with long-term da­ta that sug­gest the drug stands a fight­ing chance against J&J and Ab­b­Vie’s first gen­er­a­tion block­buster Im­bru­vi­ca.

At a me­di­an fol­low-up of 40.9 months, Calquence matched Im­bru­vi­ca for a me­di­an pro­gres­sion-free sur­vival of 38.4 months in pa­tients who had pre­vi­ous­ly been treat­ed for CLL, As­traZeneca an­nounced at AS­CO. But when it came to car­diac events, Calquence best­ed its long­stand­ing ri­val, with a 9.4% in­ci­dence of all-grade atri­al fib­ril­la­tion, com­pared to a 16% rate in the Im­bru­vi­ca arm (p= 0.02). Atri­al fib­ril­la­tion is an ir­reg­u­lar heart­beat that can lead to stroke or heart fail­ure.

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