Revolution Medicines on Monday reported trial data showing that its experimental pill, daraxonrasib, nearly doubled the median survival time for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer compared to standard chemotherapy.
The trial of 501 patients found that those taking the daily pill lived a median of 13.2 months, while those receiving chemotherapy lived 6.7 months.
Mark Goldsmith, CEO of Revolution Medicines, described the results as “truly unprecedented,” noting the drug significantly elevates the “survival bar” for one of the world’s deadliest and most intractable cancers.
The medication works by blocking the RAS group of genes, specifically the KRAS mutation present in over 90% of pancreatic cancers. Unlike previous failed attempts to “drug” this protein, daraxonrasib binds to KRAS and another protein simultaneously to shut down the tumor’s central survival mechanism.
Former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, who has been participating in the clinical trial following a Stage 4 diagnosis last December, provided a firsthand account of the drug’s powerful but punishing effects. Sasse, who served Nebraska for eight years before becoming president of the University of Florida, confirmed the drug has led to a dramatic reduction in his cancer load.
“My tumors this week are down 76 percent from December 29th,” Sasse said in a recent interview with the New York Times, describing the reduction in his torso’s tumor volume as “crazy smaller.” This shrinkage allowed him to reduce his daily morphine intake from 55 milligrams to 30 milligrams as tumor-driven spinal pain receded.
However, the treatment comes with severe physical costs. Sasse characterized daraxonrasib as a “nasty drug” that has left his skin feeling “nuclear.”
“It causes crazy stuff like my body can’t grow skin and so I bleed all out of a whole bunch of parts of me that shouldn’t be bleeding,” Sasse said, adding that the resulting appearance looked as though he had been subjected to “acid or electric shocks.”
Despite the significant tumor shrinkage, Sasse noted the difficulty of long-term survival in Stage 4 cases. “It’s probably just not something you can ever catch up on,” he said, citing the devastating nature of the metastatic disease.
Nonetheless, the survival data has intensified interest in Revolution Medicines. The company has reportedly been the subject of acquisition negotiations with Merck, with potential valuations previously discussed in the $28 billion to $32 billion range.
The company is now advancing daraxonrasib into Phase 3 trials to test it as a first-line therapy. Because the drug holds a priority review voucher from the FDA, it could be considered for formal approval in as little as one to two months.