Eli Lil­ly con­cedes a PhI­II flop for abe­maci­clib as break­out strat­e­gy floun­ders

Just days af­ter a lag­gard Eli Lil­ly won its first ap­proval for its CDK4/6 can­cer drug abe­maci­clib, the phar­ma gi­ant has been forced to con­cede a key fail­ure for its bid to leapfrog some ma­jor league com­pe­ti­tion at Pfiz­er and No­var­tis.

Their drug, mar­ket­ed as Verzenio, flopped on the pri­ma­ry over­all sur­vival end­point in a Phase III tri­al for KRAS-mu­tat­ed non-small cell lung can­cer. In­ves­ti­ga­tors had hoped to achieve a break­through af­ter gain­ing an OK in metasta­t­ic breast can­cer, look­ing to break out af­ter falling far be­hind Pfiz­er’s lead­ing Ibrance and No­var­tis’ ri­val Kisqali.

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