Amgen and AstraZeneca Report Positive Lung Cancer Trial Results
Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) and AstraZeneca PLC (LON: AZN) disclosed that a late‑stage clinical trial of their combined drug regimen demonstrated improved survival outcomes for patients with extensive‑stage small‑cell lung cancer (ES‑SCLC). The study evaluated Amgen’s bispecific antibody Imdelltra together with AstraZeneca’s checkpoint inhibitor Imfinzi as a maintenance therapy, using Imfinzi alone as the control arm. All participants had achieved disease control after standard initial therapy and had not experienced disease progression at trial entry.
The combination therapy showed statistically significant enhancements across multiple efficacy endpoints, including overall survival, progression‑free survival, and objective response rate, compared with Imfinzi monotherapy. The companies reported that no new safety signals emerged during the trial, indicating the regimen’s tolerability was consistent with existing data.
Imdelltra had previously received accelerated approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2024 for the treatment of ES‑SCLC and subsequently obtained traditional (full) approval in 2025. In the fiscal year preceding the announcement, Imdelltra generated $513 million in sales for Amgen, representing roughly 23 % of Amgen’s total revenue, underscoring the drug’s commercial importance within the company’s oncology portfolio.
Imdelltra belongs to Amgen’s portfolio of bispecific antibodies, engineered to link cancer cells with immune cells, thereby facilitating immune‑mediated tumor cell destruction.