The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved AstraZeneca's immunotherapy drug durvalumab as a treatment for bladder cancer. The FDA gave accelerated approval to AstraZeneca's drug to treat advanced bladder cancer in patients whose disease had progressed despite chemotherapy.
AstraZeneca is banking on new cancer drugs after patent losses on older blockbuster products like Crestor and Nexium. The company is already behind Bristol-Myers Squibb and Roche whose treatments are already approved. With key clinical trial results due this summer, durvalumab hopes to set itself apart is as a drug for previously untreated lung cancer.
The drug, which will be branded as Imfinzi, is an alternative to chemotherapy and works by helping the body's immune cells kill cancer.
Read the Reuters report