Skip to content
Sign in
Health · Global

Roche study finds divarasib outpaces older drugs in lung cancer

STAT reported that a Roche study found divarasib outpaced older KRAS inhibitors from Amgen and Bristol Myers Squibb in second-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The study was presented at this year’s European Society for Medical Oncology meeting, and STAT said the findings could strengthen divarasib’s market position.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 4 independent reports from 5 outlets · Article text read from 1 of 4 reportsHow it's made

View timeline · 6 entries
5 outletsLatest reporting 2 min read
Coverage: Mostly CenterL 0 · C 3 · R 1 · 1 unrated

What happened

Key facts

  • A Roche study of divarasib in second-line advanced non-small cell lung cancer was presented at this year’s ESMO.
  • The study results showed divarasib outpaced older KRAS inhibitors from Amgen and Bristol Myers Squibb.
  • The results could give divarasib a strong market position.

The brief

A Roche study found that divarasib outpaced older KRAS inhibitors from Amgen and Bristol Myers Squibb in second-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, according to STAT.

STAT described divarasib as a drug that inhibits G12C KRAS mutations and characterized the study’s results as one of the more impressive data sets presented at this year’s European Society for Medical Oncology meeting. The study concerned patients receiving second-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

STAT’s account identifies the comparison drugs by their manufacturers, Amgen and Bristol Myers Squibb, but does not name the specific older inhibitors. It reports that divarasib outpaced those drugs without giving a numerical measure of the difference.

The Pharmaletter’s headline separately described the research as a head-to-head lung cancer trial and said divarasib cut death risk. Reuters and WTVB headlines each said Roche reported a 44% reduction in the risk of death in a lung cancer trial.

Those headlines attribute the figure to Roche; they do not provide further details about how the reduction was measured or the trial’s results. STAT said the study results could give divarasib a strong market position.

Its account links that possibility to the reported comparison with older KRAS inhibitors, while offering no market share, sales estimate, or other measure of the drug’s commercial position. The Wall Street Journal headline framed Roche’s work around the company’s effort to target an emerging oncology market with a new lung cancer drug.

The headline does not specify the market’s size or explain how divarasib might compete within it. STAT’s excerpt also announced a virtual recap of the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting for Thursday at 10 a.m. Eastern and invited readers to register. It did not describe that event as a further release of the divarasib study’s findings.

Why it matters

  • For patients receiving second-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, the reported comparison concerns divarasib versus older KRAS inhibitors from Amgen and Bristol Myers Squibb.
  • STAT’s description of divarasib as inhibiting G12C KRAS mutations identifies the mechanism tied to the study’s focus.
  • The reported commercial stake is Roche’s potential market position for divarasib; STAT says the results could strengthen it.
  • Reuters and WTVB headlines attribute a 44% reduction in death risk to Roche, a specific claim not detailed in STAT’s excerpt.

What to watch next

  • Whether Roche provides further details about the 44% reduction in death risk reported in the Reuters and WTVB headlines.
  • Whether Roche’s reported comparison with older KRAS inhibitors is accompanied by a numerical measure of the difference.
  • Whether divarasib’s reported study results translate into the strong market position STAT says they could support.
  • The virtual European Society for Medical Oncology recap STAT announced for Thursday at 10 a.m. Eastern.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
5 source articles · 5 unique outlets · 4 distinct reports
Outlet political mix: Mostly Center· 3 Center · 1 Right · 1 unrated
Where the outlets are based: US/Canada 40% · Unknown 40% · Other 20%
Outlet political mix
Mostly Center
Left
Center
Right
0 outlets
3 outlets
1 outlet
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once. 1 unrated outlet is not included.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
5 unique outletsDominant coverage: US/Canada
Coverage imbalance
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among Center-rated outlets (3 of 4 rated sources); comparatively few Left-rated outlets have published on the event.
How we measure coverage

One source is from a wire service (AP, Reuters, AFP or Bloomberg), whose reporting other outlets often republish.

How outlets' accounts compare

Updat3 does not yet have enough full reports to compare how outlets framed this story.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. Amgen began the first-in-human CodeBreaK 100 study of sotorasib.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  2. Amgen researchers published a Nature paper reporting the discovery of sotorasib.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  3. Roche began a phase 1 study of divarasib in people with advanced solid tumors.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  4. The FDA granted sotorasib accelerated approval for previously treated KRAS G12C-mutated non-small cell lung cancer.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  5. The FDA granted adagrasib accelerated approval for previously treated KRAS G12C-mutated non-small cell lung cancer.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  6. Researchers published phase 1 results for divarasib in the New England Journal of Medicine.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3

How we got here

Before divarasib’s head-to-head study, the main approved KRAS G12C inhibitors for previously treated advanced lung cancer were sotorasib and adagrasib. The US Food and Drug Administration granted sotorasib accelerated approval on May 28, 2021, based on the phase 2 CodeBreaK 100 trial; it approved adagrasib on December 12, 2022, based on the phase 2 KRYSTAL-1 trial.

In a phase 1 study published in *The New England Journal of Medicine* in 2023, 53.4% of evaluable patients with non-small cell lung cancer had an objective response; the study was early-stage and involved a relatively small group. Amgen reported its sotorasib discovery in a 2019 *Nature* paper, and the first-in-human CodeBreaK 100 study began in 2018.

Original sources

5 articles from 5 outlets

Every story links to the reporting it was built from. How we choose sources

Spotted a factual error, a broken link or a misleading summary? Tell us.