FDA approves first genetic-target drug for pancreatic cancer, doubling survival

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The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a life-extending treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer — a medicine made by the biotech company Revolution Medicines that is the first to attack a genetic cause of the aggressive, highly lethal malignancy.

The drug, called daraxonrasib, will be sold under the brand name Rasonque. The FDA’s approval was supported by a practice-changing clinical trial that read out earlier this year. Patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who received Rasonque as a second-line treatment achieved a median overall survival of 13.2 months, compared to 6.7 months for patients offered standard chemotherapy.

“It will be transformative in the way we treat pancreas cancer. It’s the biggest development we’ve had in pancreas cancer in decades,” said Andrew Ko, a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers at the University of California, San Francisco. “I’m so thankful for this as an advance for our patients.”

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