{"id":96204,"date":"2026-07-02T18:43:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/96204\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T18:43:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:43:21","slug":"roche-kras-drug-succeeds-in-head-to-head-lung-cancer-study-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/96204\/","title":{"rendered":"Roche KRAS drug succeeds in head-to-head lung cancer study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Dive Brief: <\/p>\n

Roche’s experimental medicine divarasib helped patients with a certain type of lung cancer live longer than two approved treatments in a new study. <\/p>\n

The Phase 3 trial compared divarasib with Amgen’s Lumakra<\/a>\u00a0and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Krazati<\/a>\u00a0in patients with KRAS G12C non-small cell lung cancer who had already received previous treatment. Researchers found significant improvements in both overall survival and progression-free survival for the group taking divarasib, Roche said Thursday.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Roche did not release detailed data, saying the results would be presented at an upcoming medical meeting. There were no new safety findings of concern and most treatment-related side effects were “manageable and reversible,” the company said. <\/p>\n

Dive Insight: <\/p>\n

Roche is trying to break into a relatively new market for medicines targeting a genetic mutation known as KRAS G12C that occurs in about 14% of non-small cell lung cancer cases. When working properly, the KRAS gene helps regulate cell growth, acting as an on-and-off switch. The G12C mutation locks the switch to “on,” leading to continuous cell growth that drives tumors. <\/p>\n

Amgen won the first approval<\/a>\u00a0for a KRAS-targeting medicine in 2021. The Food and Drug Administration cleared Krazati for sale<\/a>\u00a0the next year. The promise of the medications caught the eye of Bristol Myers Squibb, which announced its $4.8 billion acquisition<\/a>\u00a0of Krazati’s developer, Mirati Therapeutics, in 2023. <\/p>\n

Now, Roche wants to carve out part of the market for itself. The company’s head-to-head study, titled Krascendo-1, “should establish divarasib as a new standard of care for previously treated lung cancer patients with this genetically defined tumor subtype,” Roche’s chief medical officer, Levi Garraway, said in the company’s statement. <\/p>\n

The second-line treatment study is a boost for Roche, but the bigger market opportunity is in patients who have not yet received therapy, Jefferies analyst Michael Leuchten wrote in a note to clients. Roche is testing those patients in the “Krascendo-2” trial, which compares a regimen of divarasib plus Merck & Co.’s blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda against Keytruda plus chemotherapy. <\/p>\n

Success in that trial would open up a revenue opportunity of as much as 5 billion Swiss francs, or about $6.2 billion, compared with 1 to 2 billion francs in the second line, according to Leuchten. “Krascendo-1 is a small win for Roche, but we view it as premature to claim overall victory,” he wrote. <\/p>\n

Recommended Reading <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[124],"tags":[24061,11767,48060,48061,477,134],"class_list":["post-96204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-roche","tag-bristol-myers-squibb","tag-food-and-drug-administration","tag-genetic-mutation","tag-kras","tag-lung-cancer","tag-roche"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116851861353718826","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96204","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=96204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}