India Pharma Outlook Team | Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Strong progress lights up the lung disease pipeline as a cancer combo and a PH-ILD drug post clear wins that expand treatment possibilities.
Companies and researchers keep advancing therapies that tackle aggressive lung cancers and complex vascular complications with clinical data.
Amgen and AstraZeneca show that their combination of Imdelltra and Imfinzi extends overall survival when patients receive it as maintenance therapy.
Roivant’s experimental mosliciguat meets its primary goals by cutting pressure and resistance inside lung blood vessels while helping patients walk farther.
An investigational drug designed for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis also produces unexpected changes in blood proteins. This makes patients appear biologically younger by three to four years.
These updates illustrate how today’s pipeline continues to generate practical options that address both disease control and broader biological effects.
Amgen and AstraZeneca report that Imdelltra paired with Imfinzi significantly improves overall survival compared with Imfinzi alone. The trial evaluates the combination as maintenance treatment in patients whose disease has not progressed after induction therapy. The pair also improves progression-free survival and response rates. Investigators find no new safety concerns.
Imdelltra forms part of Amgen’s pipeline of bispecific antibodies that attach to a cancer cell and an immune cell so the body’s defenses can kill the tumor. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration grants the drug accelerated approval in 2024 and traditional approval in 2025 for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer.
Last year, the medicine brings in USD 513 million in sales for Amgen, and cancer therapies account for about 23 percent of the company’s total sales. Imfinzi blocks tumor mechanisms that help cancers evade the immune system while it enhances the body’s anticancer response.
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Roivant announces that mosliciguat meets the main goals of its mid-stage study in patients with high blood pressure linked to interstitial lung disease. The drug reduces pressure and resistance in lung blood vessels by 56.3 percent compared with placebo after 16 weeks of treatment.
Pulmonary hypertension develops when scarring damages blood vessels in the lungs and forces the heart to work harder.
Mosliciguat also meets secondary goals:
The trial enrolls 135 patients across 87 sites in 20 countries. Current options include inhaled treprostinil products such as United Therapeutics’ Tyvaso and Tyvaso DPI plus Liquidia’s Yutrepia, along with off-label use of PDE5 inhibitors.
Roivant has already started a late-stage study and plans to enroll about 375 patients worldwide. Shares rise about 20 percent in premarket trading after the results.
Researchers developing rentosertib for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis observe that the drug also slows biological aging markers. Patients who take the medicine show changes in blood proteins that make them appear biologically three to four years younger, and in one case up to six years younger.
Six different aging tests reveal the same general pattern, with the strongest effect after four weeks in patients taking 30 mg twice a day. Insilico Medicine discovered the experimental drug with the help of artificial intelligence.
When investigators compare the results with data from more than 55,000 people in the UK Biobank, they find that rentosertib shifts several blood proteins in the opposite direction from normal aging. The drug also changes processes involved in how cells function and respond to damage.
Key points from the early data:
Researchers stress that the findings remain preliminary. Larger and longer trials that include healthy older adults will be needed to confirm any true anti-aging effects.
These results from the cancer combo, the PH-ILD agent, and the fibrosis medicine together show continued momentum in the lung disease pipeline and point toward more effective options ahead.
