AstraZeneca reported what the company called “unprecedented survival,” in the HIMALAYA Phase III trial using a single priming dose of tremelimumab added to the anti-PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor Imfinzi (durvalumab) compared to Bayer’s Nexavar (sorafenib) as a first-line treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who had not received previous systemic therapy and as a result, were not eligible for localized treatment.

Roche presented updated data confirming the Swiss drugmaker’s immunotherapy Tecentriq, used in combination with Avastin, substantially improves overall survival in people with the most common form of liver cancer.

After touting positive Phase III results at the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting, the U.S. FDA placed a clinical hold on uniQure”s hemophilia B treatment AMT-061 due to a patient developing liver cancer. 

Keytruda

The U.S. drug regulator declined to approve a combination of Merck & Co. Inc.’s blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda and Eisai Co. Ltd.’s Lenvima as the first line of treatment in patients with liver cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Roche’s immunotherapy Tecentriq in combination with the Swiss drugmaker’s Avastin for the most common kind of liver cancer.

Roche’s immunotherapy Tecentriq combined with the Swiss drugmaker’s Avastin medicine helped people with the most common form of liver cancer to live longer than with an older drug from Germany’s Bayer.

Researchers with the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, Netherlands and Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, developed a human model using organoids to evaluate the function of specific genes commonly mutated in liver cancer.

Gilead Sciences Inc. will partner with privately held insitro to develop therapies for a fatty liver disease called NASH.

Eisai and Merck announced that the U.S. FDA approved the kinase inhibitor Lenvima (lenvatinib) for the first-line treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.