AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot Updates On Chinese Compliance Probe And Lung Cancer Drug Trial Results

Recently, Chinese authorities detained some current and former employees of AstraZeneca Plc AZN as part of a broader investigation into alleged illegal activities in the pharmaceutical sector.

The investigation focuses on potential breaches of data privacy laws and the importation of unlicensed cancer medications.

CEO Pascal Soriot said AstraZeneca is compliant with Chinese policies and is working closely with authorities following the detention.

The probe centers around AstraZeneca’s eight or nine employees, Soriot said in a Bloomberg TV interview, noting that the firm employs 12,000 people in the country. It’s “impossible” for every employee to act as a compliance officer, Soriot added.

Also Read: AstraZeneca Threatens To Move Vaccine Production Amid Reduced State Support.

The inquiry examines whether these employees imported a liver cancer treatment that had not received approval for use in mainland China.

Further scrutiny is directed at the methods AstraZeneca employed to collect patient data, probing for any violations of China’s stringent privacy regulations.

Monday, the company shared detailed results from TROPION-Lung01 Phase 3 of datopotamab deruxtecan compared to docetaxel for locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with at least one prior line of therapy.

The data showed a clinically meaningful trend toward improving overall survival with datopotamab deruxtecan compared to docetaxel (12.9 vs. 11.8 months) but did not reach statistical significance.

The share move following the trial result doesn’t take account of the overall strength of Astra’s drug portfolio, the CEO said in the Bloomberg report.

The market is “reacting to events that happen on the day” rather than assessing long-term trends, he said. While the data are “not as perfect,” they still amount to “a strong set of results,” he said.

During the interview, the CEO mentioned that while it’s unclear what type of approval Dato-DXd will receive, its primary potential lies in being used as a first-line treatment rather than for patients who have already undergone at least one other therapy, as seen in the latest trial.

Price Action: AZN stock is down 0.59% at $80.41 during the premarket session at last check Tuesday.

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