AstraZeneca melanoma drug reaches development milestone

An AstraZeneca drug has reached a phase II development milestone for the treatment of melanoma and other solid tumours.

The treatment, an MEK inhibitor, works by isolating the MEK enzyme that is overactive in some types of cancer cell, allowing targeted therapies to be developed against these cells in particular.

Following successful phase Ib clinical trials, AstraZeneca will pay Array BioPharma $3 million (1.4 million pounds) after the first patients in phase II trials was dosed with the drug, called AZD6244.

In phase I studies, the compound “clearly demonstrated” its effectiveness in inhibiting the MEK enzyme and it appeared to be well tolerated, according to “downstream” tumour markers.

AstraZeneca now hopes to enrol around 180 patients across 40 world treatment centres, as well as planning further studies to assess the effectiveness of AZD6244 in combating other varieties of tumour.

The UK’s largest pharmaceutical company now has exclusive worldwide rights to promote the drug for use in the field of oncology, although Array BioPharma still has rights to any drug produced not being used for cancer treatment.

Cancer Research UK says that approximately 8,000 patients are diagnosed with the disease every year. Although it is “easily curable” in the earlier stages of the disease, many cases could be prevented by protect skin more effectively against sunlight, according to the charity.