Af­ter tak­ing a PhI­II thrash­ing, As­traZeneca comes out swing­ing with break­through ti­tles, new can­cer hires

As­traZeneca $AZN may be down, but it’s not out.

Sent reel­ing over the fail­ure of its first big pri­ma­ry end­point for a check­point com­bo of dur­val­um­ab and treme­li­mum­ab late last week, the phar­ma gi­ant re­ports it just scored the FDA’s break­through drug des­ig­na­tion for acal­abru­ti­nib as a treat­ment for man­tle cell lym­phoma, its sec­ond break­through ti­tle in two days.

The BTD for acal­abru­ti­nib came fast on the heels of the break­through ti­tle for dur­val­um­ab for un­re­sectable non-small cell lung can­cer whose dis­ease has not pro­gressed fol­low­ing plat­inum-based chemora­di­a­tion ther­a­py.

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