罗氏控股公司的一款被宣传为潜在重磅药物的药品，帮助一种已扩散的肺癌患者比两种竞争药物多存活了近六个月。作者：法比安娜·金泽尔曼这种名为迪瓦拉西布的实验性药物在一项后期研究中表现优于安进公司的索托拉西布和百时美施贵宝公司的阿达格拉西布。该药物用于治疗非小细胞肺癌患者，这些患者在包括化疗在内的其他治疗后，肿瘤部分因基因突变而发生扩散。
A Roche Holding AG drug billed as a potential blockbuster helped patients with a form of lung cancer that had spread live almost six months longer than two competitive medicines. By Fabienne Kinzelmann The experimental treatment, called divarasib, fared better than Amgen Inc.’s sotorasib and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s adagrasib in a late-stage study. The drug was given to patients with non-small cell lung cancer that had spread, in part because of a genetic mutation, after other treatments, including chemotherapy.
波士顿丹娜-法伯癌症研究所的胸部肿瘤学家、同时担任该试验研究者之一的罗佳表示，这些发现可能有助于迪瓦拉西布成为这类肺癌的首选治疗药物。这类肺癌由一种名为KRAS G12C的突变驱动肿瘤细胞生长。
The findings could help divarasib become the treatment of choice for this type of lung cancer, in which a mutation called KRAS G12C drives the tumor cell growth, said Jia Luo, a thoracic oncologist at the Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who was one of the trial investigators.
“它将取代现有的KRAS G12C抑制剂，”罗佳在接受采访时说。
“It will replace the existing established KRAS G12C inhibitors,” Luo said in an interview.
据彭博调查的分析师预计，到2032年，这款药的销售额可能略高于10亿瑞士法郎（合13亿美元）。
The medicine could garner sales of just over 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.3 billion) in 2032, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
据罗佳介绍，这些结果于周日在马德里举行的欧洲肿瘤内科学会会议上公布，尤其令人信服，因为罗氏将迪瓦拉西布直接与它试图取代的药物进行了对比，而不是依赖化疗这种更简单的对照方式。她说：“他们确实冒了这个险，而且得到了回报。”
The results, released Sunday at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Madrid, are particularly convincing because Roche tested divarasib directly against the drugs it seeks to displace, rather than relying on an easier comparison such as chemotherapy, according to Luo. “They actually took this risk and it’s paid off,” she said.
研究人员发现，该药物的安全性与迪瓦拉西布及同类其他药物的既往报告一致，出现严重副作用或因副作用退出试验的患者较少。
The drug’s safety was consistent with previous reports for divarasib and other medicines of the same class, the researchers found, with fewer patients experiencing serious side effects or quitting the trial because of them.
“这些数据将改变临床实践，”罗氏副首席医疗官斯特凡·弗林斯在接受采访时表示。“将一种疗效显著、安全性良好且能延长生命的疗法提供给患者，有着强烈的动力。”罗氏还在测试达瓦西单抗是否可在疾病更早阶段发挥作用。一项研究将该药与默克公司的Keytruda（帕博利珠单抗）联用，作为新确诊患者潜在的免化疗治疗方案；另一项研究则在术后测试该药，以防止癌症复发。
“These are practice-changing data,” Stefan Frings, Roche’s deputy chief medical officer, said in an interview. “There is a strong incentive to get a highly active life-prolonging therapy with a good safety profile to patients.”Roche is also testing whether divarasib can play a role earlier in the disease. One study is pairing the drug with Merck & Co.’s Keytruda as a potential chemotherapy-free treatment for newly diagnosed patients, while another is testing it after surgery to keep the cancer from returning.