News brief­ing: Ot­su­ka’s $886M can­cer drug is now a 3-time los­er in PhI­II; Keytru­da ap­proved for clas­si­cal Hodgkin lym­phoma

Two years af­ter Ot­su­ka un­veiled a flop in their first Phase III tri­al of guadecitabine as a front­line treat­ment, they’re back with 2 more piv­otal set­backs. But re­searchers are leav­ing the door ajar for more stud­ies ahead.

The com­pa­ny’s Cal­i­for­nia sub­sidiary As­tex, ac­quired for $886 mil­lion back in 2013, says that AS­TRAL-2 and AS­TRAL-3 — which re­cruit­ed pa­tients who had been pre­vi­ous­ly treat­ed for AML and MDS/CMML — couldn’t beat the mark for sta­tis­ti­cal sig­nif­i­cance.

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