Lung Cancer Drug Fails in Late-Stage Study

Amgen Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. announced Wednesday that a drug being developed by the two companies for cancer patients failed in late-stage testing to improve overall survival rates for lung cancer patients.

The drug, motesanib, was being developed for patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Patients involved in the trial were either receiving a combination of motesanib with chemotherapy or a placebo with chemotherapy.

In this trial, as in earlier trials of motesanib, the patients who received the drug were also more likely to experience serious adverse events more frequently than those who were given a placebo. Among the adverse events reported were hypertension and bleeding disorders.

"We are disappointed with the results from this trial, but look forward to further analysis of the data which may ultimately help inform future research in this area," said Roger M. Perlmutter, executive vice president of Research and Development at Amgen.