AZ has mixed bag of results from Ph III trials

Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca has reported mixed results for three Phase III studies of Zactima (vandetanib) in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.

The larger ZODIAC trial met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival with statistical significance, but the smaller ZEAL study did not. However, both data sets showed significantly-improved objective response rate. The trials were both randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies evaluating the combination of vandetanib 100mg with: docetaxel versus docetaxel alone in ZODIAC; and pemetrexed vs pemetrexed alone in ZEAL. ZODIAC enrolled 1,391 patients and ZEAL had 534 subjects. Both trial populations had been previously treated with one prior therapy for advanced NSCLC.