July 13 (Reuters) – GSK said on Monday its cancer drug Jemperli met the primary goal of a mid-stage trial, with a clinically significant rate of patients showing no detectable signs of cancer for one year or more after treatment for a specific type of locally advanced rectal cancer.
Here are some details:
• Dostarlimab, marketed as Jemperli, is being tested in rectal cancer tumours that cannot properly repair DNA damage, a subtype affecting 5%-10% of 730,000 annual global cases, according to GSK.
• Current standard of care typically includes chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, and can lead to lifelong colostomy bag use and infertility.
• These tumours have a genetic characteristic where they cannot properly repair DNA damage, causing mutations to accumulate and making them highly responsive to immunotherapies like Jemperli.
• The interim data from the phase II AZUR-1 trial also showed dostarlimab’s safety and tolerability profile was consistent with previous studies in solid tumours.
• Jemperli, already approved in the U.S. and UK for specific endometrial cancer subtypes, generated sales of $1.1 billion in 2025, and GSK expects it to be an important contributor to its long-term sales target of more than £40 billion ($53.52 billion) by 2031.
• The drug has received both Breakthrough Therapy and Fast Track designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and GSK plans to share data with global regulators for review.
($1 = £0.7474)
(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Eileen Soreng)
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