J&J’s blad­der can­cer drug Balver­sa cuts the risk of death in fol­low-up tri­al: #AS­CO23

CHICA­GO — A tar­get­ed ther­a­py for a rare ge­net­ic sub­set of metasta­t­ic blad­der can­cers re­duced pa­tients’ risk of death by 36% com­pared to chemother­a­py, John­son & John­son an­nounced Mon­day morn­ing at AS­CO, fos­ter­ing hope for pa­tients who have ex­haust­ed most oth­er op­tions.

The pill, mar­ket­ed as Balver­sa, won an ac­cel­er­at­ed ap­proval from the FDA in 2019 based on a small­er study show­ing that tu­mors shrank in near­ly one-third of pa­tients who have cer­tain mu­ta­tions in FGFR. The first re­sults from the new Phase III study, dubbed THOR, con­firm that the drug keeps can­cer at bay for longer than chemo.

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