{"id":21693,"date":"2026-02-28T14:22:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/21693\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T14:22:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:22:45","slug":"lilly-raises-stakes-in-novartis-battle-with-verzenio-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/21693\/","title":{"rendered":"Lilly raises stakes in Novartis battle with Verzenio data"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armed with new survival data from the monarchE trial of CDK4\/6 inhibitor Verzenio, Eli Lilly looks set to cement the drug’s place in the treatment of early-stage breast cancer, and keep its nose in front of a fast-growing rival from Novartis.<\/p>\n

Verzenio (abemaciclib) became the first drug in the class to be approved for use alongside hormonal treatment for patients with early HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes in 2021, on the strength of invasive disease-free survival data (iDFS) from monarchE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The expansion of the label from advanced breast cancer into adjuvant (post-surgery) settings has already helped Verzenio reach sales of more than $5 billion last year.<\/p>\n

Now, with the more robust overall survival (OS) result in hand, Lilly can consolidate its standing in early-stage disease and help fend off a challenge in the market from Novartis’ Kisqali (ribociclib), which was cleared for use alongside hormonal therapy in early-stage HR+\/HER2- breast cancer last year after improving iDFS in the NATALEE<\/a> trial.<\/p>\n

So far, the NATALEE study has not revealed a significant improvement in OS, although it has trended higher.<\/p>\n

One key difference between the two drugs is that NATALEE also enrolled patients whose cancer had not yet spread to the lymph nodes, allowing Novartis to target a larger potentially eligible population. Since the new approval, Kisqali sales have rocketed, rising 60% to $2.1 billion in the first half of this year.<\/p>\n

The scale of the OS improvement in monarchE has not yet been revealed, but Lilly said in a statement that at the seven-year follow-up point, it was a “statistically significant and clinically meaningful” increase compared to hormonal therapy alone. It was also backed up by sustained improvements in iDFS, as well as distant relapse-free survival (DRFS).<\/p>\n

“Preventing disease relapse and helping patients live longer is the ultimate goal and a high bar in the adjuvant setting,” said Jacob Van Naarden, president of Lilly Oncology.<\/p>\n

“Achieving a statistically significant OS benefit with just two years of Verzenio therapy reinforces its differentiated profile in high-risk HR+, HER2- early breast cancer,” he added. “Th[is] data validate[s] Verzenio as the standard-of-care for patients with node-positive, high-risk disease and increase[s] the urgency to ensure all eligible patients are treated.”<\/p>\n

Safety data from the long-term follow-up was consistent with earlier results, according to Lilly, which said the new data will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and shared with regulators with a view to revising Verzenio’s labelling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armed with new survival data from the monarchE trial of CDK4\/6 inhibitor Verzenio, Eli Lilly looks set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[127],"tags":[207,1288,216,14243,206,265,252,14242],"class_list":["post-21693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-novartis","tag-breast-cancer","tag-clinical-trials","tag-eli-lilly","tag-kisqali","tag-novartis","tag-oncology","tag-pharma-news","tag-verzenio"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}