Everest Medicines (HKEX 1952.HK) announces today that its licensing partner, Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD), reported positive results from the primary analysis of the Phase 3 TROPiCS-02 study of Trodelvy^® (sacituzumab govitecan) versus physicians' choice of chemotherapy (TPC) in heavily pre-treated HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer patients who received prior endocrine therapy, CDK4/6 inhibitors and two to four lines of chemotherapy.

The study met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) with a statistically significant and clinically meaningful 34% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death (median PFS 5.5 vs. 4 months; HR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.53-0.83; P<0.0003). The first interim analysis of the key secondary endpoint of overall survival (OS) demonstrated a trend in improvement. These data are immature, and patients will be followed for subsequent OS analysis. These findings will be featured in an oral session (Abstract #LBA1001) during the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

The study demonstrated that at the one-year mark, three times as many patients were progression-free when treated with Trodelvy compared to those who received TPC (21% versus 7%). Improvements in PFS with Trodelvy were also consistent across key patient subgroups, including patients who had previously received three or more chemotherapy regimens for metastatic disease (HR: 0.70; CI: 0.52-0.95), patients with visceral metastases (HR: 0.66; CI: 0.53-0.83), and the elderly (≥65 years of age; HR: 0.59; CI: 0.38-0.93).

"For patients with HR+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer, resistance to endocrine therapy is inevitable in almost all cases. The standard of care is then limited to sequential single agent chemotherapy, with declining response rates, disease control and quality of life," said Dr. Hope Rugo, Professor of Medicine and Director, Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at the University of California San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center, U.S. "In TROPiCS-02, we enrolled heavily pre-treated patients with metastatic breast cancer who had disease progression following multiple lines of chemotherapy. To observe a clinically meaningful reduction in the risk of disease progression or death in these patients with limited treatment options is remarkable. Sacituzumab govitecan will be an important potential future treatment option for these patients."

The safety profile for Trodelvy was consistent with prior studies, with no new safety concerns identified in this patient population. The most frequent Grade ≥3 treatment-related adverse reactions for Trodelvy compared to TPC were neutropenia (51% versus 38%), diarrhea (9% versus 1%), leukopenia (9% versus 5%), anemia (6% versus 3%), fatigue (6% versus 2%) and febrile neutropenia (5% versus 4%).

Everest Medicines is conducting a Phase 3 registrational Asian study EVER-132-002 evaluating Trodelvy versus physicians' choice of chemotherapy in people with HR+/HER2− metastatic breast cancer, which is enrolling patients in China mainland, Taiwan and South Korea.

"Data from our partner's Phase 3 TROPiCS-02 Study further demonstrate Trodelvy's potential to benefit a larger portion of breast cancer patients," said Yang Shi, Chief Medical Officer for Oncology/Immunology at Everest Medicines. "We look forward to the results from our Asia clinical study."