Eli Lilly reports positive results from study of thyroid cancer treatment

Eli Lilly & Co.
LLY,
-0.29%
on Tuesday reported positive results from a study evaluating its targeted therapy Retevmo versus the current standard initial treatments for patients with advanced or metastatic rearranged during transfection (RET)-mutant medullary thyroid cancer. Retevmo demonstrated a significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival, compared with the multikinase inhibitors cabozantinib and vandetanib, Lilly said in a release. The data “suggest Retevmo should be considered the preferred first-line treatment” for people with this type of thyroid cancer, Dr. David Hyman, chief medical officer of Loxo@Lilly, said in a statement. Earlier this month, Lilly also reported that Retevmo demonstrated improved progression-free survival compared with platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with RET fusion-positive advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, intensifying competition with Blueprint Medicines Corp.’s
BPMC,
+1.48%
RET inhibitor Gavreto. Lilly shares rose 0.1% premarket on Tuesday and have gained 50% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.23%
is up 14.6%.