Roche Reports Positive Results From IMpower150 Lung Cancer Trial

Switzerland's Roche Holding AG (ROG.EB) said Thursday that a phase 3 trial of its Tecentriq and Avastin treatments showed positive results in patients with a type of advanced lung cancer.

The pharmaceutical company said the IMpower150 study showed a 38% reduction in the risk of the disease--advanced non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer--worsening or death among patients who received Tecentriq and Avastin plus chemotherapy, compared with those who received only Avastin plus chemotherapy.

The rate of tumor shrinkage was also higher in people treated with a combination of both drugs, compared with those who only received Avastin and chemotherapy, Roche said.

The study found that the safety profile of the Tecentriq and Avastin plus chemotherapy combination was consistent with the safety profiles of the individual medicines, it added.

Participants in the IMpower150 study were divided into three groups and received either Tecentriq, Avastin or a combination of the two, in addition to chemotherapy treatment.

Patients in the first group received Tecentriq, patients in the second received a combination of Tecentriq and Avastin, while patients in the third received Avastin.

"Due to pre-specified statistical testing hierarchy, Arm A [group one] vs. Arm C [group three] has not been formally tested yet," Roche said.

Write to Nathan Allen at nathan.allen@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 07, 2017 02:09 ET (07:09 GMT)