Revolution Medicine begins early access for pancreatic cancer drug

Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotechnology columnist, reporting on the intersection of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard. Signal’s Adam can be reached at stataf.54.

CHICAGO — Biotechnology company Revolution Medicines has begun shipping an experimental life-prolonging treatment for pancreatic cancer to doctors and their patients under an early access program approved by the Food and Drug Administration, CEO Mark Goldsmith told STAT.

“We’re shipping that drug right now,” he said Friday night, speaking at a STAT event held in conjunction with the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting.

The drug Daraxone Lasib has not yet been approved. But since mid-April, when Revolution reported surprising results from a Phase 3 clinical trial, patients with pancreatic cancer have been seeking treatment for their cancer. Patients treated with daraxone lasib lived almost twice as long as those who received standard chemotherapy. This is an unprecedented result in the field of pancreatic cancer.

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