Pancreatic cancer drug daraxonrasib from Revolution Medicines succeeds in

Revolution Medicines‘ drug for pancreatic cancer succeeded in a highly anticipated Phase 3 trial, almost doubling the typical length of survival and slashing the risk of death by 60% versus chemotherapy, the company said Monday.

RevMed said its daily pill, daraxonrasib, met all primary and secondary endpoints in a trial of people whose cancer had already progressed on another treatment. People who took daraxonrasib typically lived for 13.2 months versus 6.7 months for people who took chemotherapy, an increase of 6.5 months, RevMed said in a press release.

“These are dramatic, practice-changing outcomes, and our focus now is moving quickly to bring this potential new treatment option to patients who urgently need new treatment,” RevMed CEO Mark Goldsmith said in an interview.

Goldsmith called the results “unprecedented,” saying no drug has shown an overall survival benefit greater than one year in a Phase 3 trial for pancreatic cancer. The company plans to soon seek Food and Drug Administration approval using a Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher, which grants a review within a matter of months.

RevMed’s pill could bring a new option for people with pancreatic cancer, an aggressive disease that has the lowest five-year survival rate of any major cancer, at 13%. Daraxonrasib broadly targets RAS mutations, which drive tumor growth and are found in about 90% of pancreatic cancer cases.

“These results usher in a new era of RAS-targeted medicines for pancreatic cancer, which has been exclusively treated with cytotoxic intravenous chemotherapy,” Goldsmith said.

For patients, these results are “truly transformational,” said Dr. Shubham Pant, professor of gastrointestinal medical oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Pant said he’s been involved in numerous other studies that have failed, and said previous positive trials extended survival by a few weeks or months.

He’s been involved in trials for RevMed’s daraxonrasib since its early days, and choked up multiple times when describing the results and what they mean for patients, including one who participated in the pivotal trial that Pant had seen just before the interview.

“Today, I’m just, I’m just thankful,” Pant said. “That’s all I can say. And you know, just seeing patients in my clinic today, I’ve got a busy clinic today, and I’m just thankful.”

Daraxonrasib gained more attention last week, when former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer late last year and given only months to live, shared his experience taking the drug in an interview with The New York Times. He told the Times that Pant is his doctor.

Sasse said his tumors have shrunk 76% since he started taking the drug, but said it causes “crazy” side effects like a facial rash. His face appeared to be peeling during the interview.

RevMed’s CEO Goldsmith said the company can’t comment on any individual patient, but that a rash is a known side effect and one that’s generally…