As­traZeneca’s on­col­o­gy drug star Tagris­so gets a new ap­proval for front­line lung can­cer in Japan

One of the few bright spots at As­traZeneca $AZN over the last few years has been its steady build-up of the glob­al mar­ket for its can­cer drug Tagris­so. And to­day the com­pa­ny not­ed one more for­ward step on that front, with an ap­proval in Japan for front­line cas­es in­volv­ing in­op­er­a­ble or re­cur­rent EGFR mu­ta­tion-pos­i­tive non-small cell lung can­cer.

“Tagris­so is al­ready ap­proved in Japan for the treat­ment of pa­tients with EGFR T790M mu­ta­tion-pos­i­tive in­op­er­a­ble or re­cur­rent NSCLC that is re­sis­tant to ex­ist­ing 1st-line EGFR-in­hibitor med­i­cines,” not­ed Dave Fredrick­son, the head of the on­col­o­gy busi­ness unit. “To­day’s ap­proval moves the use of Tagris­so to the 1st-line set­ting, re­plac­ing old­er med­i­cines which, giv­en the high preva­lence of the EGFR mu­ta­tion in Japan, of­fers an im­por­tant new treat­ment op­tion for these pa­tients.”

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