Summary
- AstraZeneca plc’s (LON:AZN) Tagrisso (osimertinib) has received approval in the US for the adjuvant medication of adult patients.
- The approval was received under the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) pilot program
British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca plc’s (LON: AZN) Tagrisso (osimertinib) has received approval in the US for the adjuvant medication of adult patients with early phase epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated (EGFRm) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after cancer resection with therapeutic intent.
Tagrisso is revealed for EGFRm patients whose tumours have exon 19 deletions or exon 21 L858R mutations as discovered by an approved test.
The approval was received under the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) pilot programme. Five other nations took part in a concurrent submission and assessment procedure through the FDA’s Project Orbis.

(Image source: ©Kalkine Group 2020)
The approval has come based on outcomes from the ADAURA Phase III trial in which Tagrisso has confirmed a statistically important and medically eloquent upgrading in disease-free survival in the key examination population of patients who are in Stage II and IIIA EGFRm NSCLC.
Roy S. Herbst, the chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Center, said Adjuvant Tagrisso has shown an extraordinary disease-free endurance benefit for early phase lung cancer patients having EGFR transmutations who face a high ratio of relapse even after successful operation and the following chemotherapy.
Herbst, who is also the chief of medical oncology at Smilow Cancer Hospital, said that the approval underlines how important it is to test all lung cancer patients for EGFR mutations before choosing how to treat them and irrespective of their stage at diagnosis.
Also read: AstraZeneca’s Potential Covid-19 Vaccine Goes Under Accelerated Review
Dave Fredrickson, executive vice president of Oncology Business Unit, said this approval dismisses the belief that medication is over after operation and chemotherapy, as the ADAURA results show that Tagrisso can significantly change the course of this disease.
Adjuvant medication with Tagrisso lowered the probability of disease relapse or death by 83 per cent in the principal termination of DFS in patients with Stage II and IIIA infection. DFS results in the total trial population of patients who are in Stage IB-IIIA disease demonstrated Tagrisso decreased the risk of disease relapse or death by 80 per cent.