Astra treatment given green light in America

ASTRAZENECA is celebrating after a cancer drug secured US approval.

The firm’s Enhertu treatment, which it developed with Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo, has been given the green light by the Food and Drug Administration regulator for use in patients suffering from an aggressive and difficult to treat form of lung cancer.

It followed the results of a clinical trial in which nearly 58pc of patients saw positive responses from the treatment.

It is the first drug to be approved by US regulators for a type of metastatic nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Lung cancer is the second most common form globally, with more than 2m patients diagnosed in 2020.

Survival rates for patients suffering from NSCLC are particularly poor – only 8pc live longer than five years after diagnosis.

The drug can now be given to patients who have inoperable tumours or where the cancer has spread beyond the lungs.

AstraZeneca will pay £103m to Daiichi Sankyo as part of a development agreement between the two companies. Astra shares went up 2pc, or 206p, to 10,712p.