(Reuters) – China has approved the use of AstraZeneca’s blockbuster cancer drug Tagrisso in combination with chemotherapy as a first line of treatment for adults with a type of advanced lung cancer, the company said on Wednesday.
AstraZeneca said the approval by China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) was based on trials which showed that patients given the combination treatment lived without the disease getting worse longer than those given just Tagrisso.
The median progression-free survival of patients treated with Tagrisso and chemotherapy was 25.5 months, 8.8 months more than those treated with just Tagrisso.
(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)