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Cancer drug boosts AstraZeneca: A late-stage, phase III trial of a prostate cancer drug that AstraZeneca has developed with MSD Research Laboratories has yielded positive results, boosting the Anglo-Swedish drugsmaker’s shares, says Camilla Canocchi on This Is Money. The drug, Lynparza, was shown to delay the cancer’s progression by around eight months compared with standard treatment, when combined with hormone therapy. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in Britain, and the second most-common worldwide, so a treatment would be lucrative. The results are “fresh evidence that [AstraZeneca’s] oncology business is on a successful streak”, says Susannah Streeter of Hargreaves Lansdown. “Oncology sales are higher margin, and revenues have already risen 17% over the past full year, so news of added potential in the pipeline is very encouraging.”

Separately, the relatively short, six-month shelf life of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine was hampering efforts to inoculate the poorest countries, particularly in Africa, via the World Health Organisation’s COVAX programme, says Reuters.