Tagrisso is already the crown jewel in the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker’s portfolio, raking in 5.4 billion USD last year. 

The drug has regulatory approvals across multiple geographies for certain patients with so-called non small cell lung cancer who have a mutation of the EGFR gene. 

The latest data, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, establishes Tagrisso as the backbone treatment for EGFR-mutated lung cancer, said Susan Galbraith, executive VP of oncology R&D at AstraZeneca in a statement. 

“This is a pretty dramatic and remarkable improvement,” said Dave Fredrickson, executive vice president of oncology at AstraZeneca in an interview with Reuters. 

An estimated 88% of patients treated with Tagrisso were alive at five years compared to 78% on placebo, trial data also showed.