Roche to halt trial in latest setback for lung cancer immunotherapy

By Rachel More and Ludwig Burger

BERLIN (Reuters) - Roche will end a lung cancer trial testing its new immunotherapy after the drug did not show a benefit over established treatment Keytruda by Merck & Co, casting further doubt on the drug candidate pioneered by the Swiss company.

The trial, dubbed SKYSCRAPER-06, would be stopped because tiragolumab, when used in a drug combination, did not slow disease progression or prolong survival when compared with a drug combination including Keytruda, Roche said on Thursday.

Prospects for the drug had already suffered a blow in 2022, when it did not slow disease progression when tested on a different kind of lung cancer patient group. Survival results of that trial are expected later this year.

Roche shares fell 2.3% to a three-week low in early trade.

"We believe that the market could discount any remaining potential" for the drug, JP Morgan analysts said in a note.

Tiragolumab is part of a new class of drugs known as anti-TIGIT that has attracted a range of rival drug developers working on similar compounds.

"These results are disappointing as it was our hope that this combination might yield improved outcomes for people living with metastatic non-squamous lung cancer," Chief Medical Officer Levi Garraway said in the statement.

Roche said it would evaluate any relevant changes needed to its ongoing tiragolumab programme.

(Reporting by Rachel More and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Thomas Seythal and David Holmes)