AstraZeneca share price: Group gets expanded approval for oncology drug

US regulators have approved AstraZeneca’s (LON:AZN) oncology treatment Faslodex for wider use in women with breast cancer, the blue-chip pharmco has said. In a separate development, the FTSE 100 group and peer Takeda will jointly develop and commercialise a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

AstraZeneca’s share price has fallen deep into the red in today’s session, having given up 0.97 percent to 4,455.00p as of 10:19 BST, slightly outperforming the broader market selloff which has seen the benchmark FTSE 100 index tumble 1.37 percent to 7,300.14 points so far today. The group’s shares have lost a little over 10 percent of their value over the past year, but are up by nearly 0.3 percent in the year-to-date.

AstraZeneca announced in a statement this morning that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved its treatment Faslodex as monotherapy for expanded use in women with hormone-receptor positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-) advanced breast cancer, who have gone through menopause and have not received previous endocrine therapy. The drug was first approved in 2002 for use in postmenopausal women with HR+ MBC whose cancer had progressed following prior anti-oestrogen therapy.

The expanded approval is good news for AstraZeneca which is betting on oncology as one several therapy areas to help the company return to growth. The expanded approval comes after last month, the FDA granted ‘breakthrough’ designation to the group’s oncology drug durvalumab. 

In a separate development, Anglo-Swedish group announced that it had entered an agreement with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceuticals to develop and commercialise MEDI1341, an alpha-synuclein antibody currently in development as a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease. The compound is due to enter early-stage clinical trials later this year.

Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will lead the early-stage development, while Takeda will lead future clinical development activities. The companies will share equally future development and commercialisation costs for MEDI1341, as well as any future revenues. Takeda, however, will pay AstraZeneca up to $400 million, including initial revenue in 2017 and development and sales milestones thereafter. 

As of 10:50 BST, Tuesday, 29 August, AstraZeneca plc share price is 4,447.50p.