For metastatic breast cancer patients who try and fail on multiple treatments, finding options to manage disease is a difficult proposition. AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo hoped their antibody-drug conjugate could help that tough-to-treat population––and the FDA agreed to give it a shot despite a shaky safety profile.
The FDA approved AstraZeneca and Daiichi's Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki) on Friday as a treatment for patients with inoperable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who have already failed on at least two other treatments. AstraZeneca and Daiichi will jointly develop and sell the drug outside of Japan, where Daiichi holds exclusive rights.
Enhertu will likely launch in January at a per-patient cost of around $13,300 per month, SVB Leerink analyst Andrew Berens said in a note to investors Monday. At that price, Enhertu could reach $68 million in sales in 2020, with a peak sales estimate of $2.5 billion, Berens said.
