Combined therapy reduces the risk of tumor progression in the form of breast cancer

Adam Feuerstein is a main writer and biotechnology columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street and biotechnology. He is also co-host of the weekly biotechnology podcast Noisy reading and author of the newsletter Adam’s biotech dashboard. You can reach Adam on the signal to stataf.54.

CHICAGO – A treatment that combines two different types of cancer drugs – Trodelvy from Gilead Sciences with the Keytruda de Merck – has reduced the risk of tumor progression by more than a third in women with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

The results reported on Saturday from the randomized phase 3 study called ASCENT-04 could lead to a new treatment option for newly diagnosed triple negative breast cancer, experts said.

Gilead, who conducted the study, could also benefit from a boost in Trodelvy sales at a time when he faces the competition from a similar medication made by Astrazeneca and Daiichi Sankyo.