Novartis’ Canakinumab Fails in Phase III Trials for NSCLC
Canakinumab's prospects as an anticancer therapy were already dwindling when a third phase III trial in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) failed to reach its objectives. The most recent setback came from the CANOPY-A study, which included patients with NSCLC stages II-IIIA and IIIB who were given canakinumab as adjuvant therapy following surgery to try to prevent the disease from returning. The antibody treatment failed to show any advantage over the placebo in disease-free survival (DFS), thereby failing to meet its primary objective. Canakinumab is an anti-inflammatory drug that targets IL-1 beta and is a...
