A disappointing readout for pancreatic cancer patients — and Eli Lilly

Eli Lilly’s $1.6 billion bet last year seems to have flopped — at least with pancreatic cancer. The company acquired ARMO Biosciences in a massive all-cash transaction in May 2018 — chasing its lead product, pegilodecakin, a PEGylated IL-10 drug meant to activate an immune response against cancer cells. 

Yesterday, however, Lilly announced top-line results from a Phase 3 pancreatic cancer trial testing pegilodecakin — and the experimental drug did not meet its primary endpoint of survival. 

FOLFOX is a common chemotherapy regimen used to treat pancreatic cancer. Lilly’s SEQUOIA trial tested a combination of pegilodecakin with FOLFOX, as compared to FOLFOX alone — and also found that adverse events like neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, fatigue, and anemia occurred at a higher rate among patients who took the pegilodecakin combo. 

That said, pegilodecakin is still being tested in lung cancer — and Lilly said in a statement that it’s holding out hope that it shows efficacy in that indication.