AstraZeneca PLC Trudges Behind in Cancer Race Where Losing May Force a Buyout

Astellas Pharma, Proteostasis Therapeutics Forge $1.2 Billion Genetic Disease Drug Development Pact

March 20, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

In a series of reports covered today, analysts discussed U.K.-based AstraZeneca PLC ’s shortcomings in competing in the cancer treatment space. In the wake of fending off a takeover bid by Pfizer Inc. in 2014, AstraZeneca chief executive officer Pascal Soriot predicted that the company could increase its revenue by 75 percent by 2023 by relying on its experimental pipeline, an ambitious goal.

That prediction seems a little weak at the moment with AstraZeneca pulling up the rear in a race to market a new lung cancer drug. Earlier this month Bristol-Myers Squibb Company received approval to sell Opdivo for patients with metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that progresses while on or after platinum-based chemotherapy.

AstraZeneca has a similar compound, MEDI4736, which is still in clinical trials and isn’t expected to be ready to submit to the FDA until 2016. “AstraZeneca is not in a leadership position,” said Nicholas Turner, an analyst at Mirabaud Securities LLP in London, in a statement. “If you’re first mover, you could have a blockbuster. If you’re fourth mover, unless you have something really significant as an advantage, it’s difficult to see how you compete.”

That may or may not be true. There are plenty of recent examples of companies that have bucked that statement by finding mixtures of drugs that compete very well, a strategy that seems to be on AstraZeneca’s mind. “We have the breadth in our portfolio to test multiple combinations,” said Bahija Jallal, head of the AstraZeneca unit that discovered MEDI4736.

Sometimes these drug combinations battle with higher negative side effects. “That’s the downside to these combinations,” said Colin White, an analyst with Datamonitor Healthcare, a London research company in a statement. “The plus side is you’re looking at vastly more effective treatments.”

AstraZeneca is also conducting clinical trials on AZD9291, a non-immune therapy in lung cancer for patients with a specific gene mutation. Boulder, Colo.-based Clovis Oncology is testing a competing product.

Despite the overall skepticism on the part of analysts, some think investors shouldn’t count out AstraZeneca. Jeffrey Holford, an analyst at Jefferies LLC in New York believes the company’s immune-oncology pipeline is “under appreciated” and also has significant depth in developing drugs for heart disease, diabetes and respiratory illness.

Yesterday the company announced it had signed a co-commercialization agreement with Parsippany, N.J.-based Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. to commercialize Movantik (naloxegol) for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation (OIC) in the U.S. It also announced earlier in the week that PT003, an experimental compound for the treatment of chronic lung disease, had been successful in two final-stage Phase III trials. PT003 is being tested for treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).


BioSpace Temperature Poll
After Amgen Inc. said last week that it will close its South San Francisco facility acquired during its $10 billion buyout of Onyx Pharmaceuticals and will lay off 300 of Oynx’s 750 workers, BioSpace is wondering—will the number of mergers and acquisitions completed in 2014 mean a “streamlining” of biotech jobs in the Bay Area? Tell us your thoughts.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC