FDA clears daraxonrasib, first pill to nearly double pancreatic cancer survival

The FDA has approved daraxonrasib for previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer. The targeted pill offers longer survival and fewer severe side effects in a disease with poor outcomes.Stock photo used for illustrationThe US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved daraxonrasib, a new drug for the most common form of pancreatic cancer, giving patients a more effective treatment option against one of the deadliest cancers. FDA officials granted expedited approval to the first-of-a-kind pill, which blocks a mutated protein that drives tumour growth in more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cases.The daily pill will be sold by Revolution Medicines under the brand name Rasonque. In a company-funded study of 500 patients whose metastatic cancer had stopped responding to earlier treatment, those given the new drug nearly doubled their survival time and had fewer severe side effects than those who received more chemotherapy. Patients taking daraxonrasib lived for a median of 13.2 months, compared with 6.7 months for chemotherapy recipients.Pancreatic cancer is among the deadliest cancers largely because it is difficult to detect before it spreads to other organs. The American Cancer Society estimates that about 67,000 new cases will be diagnosed in the United States this year and more than 52,000 people will die from the disease. The overall five-year survival rate is 13 per cent. FDA regulators said they approved the drug more than six months ahead of their target date.The drug drew public attention earlier this year when former senator Ben Sasse said on CBS' "60 Minutes" that he had less pain while taking it. A rise in public interest led the FDA to allow "expanded access" before formal approval for patients who met certain criteria. "It is our fundamental duty to deliver more cures and meaningful treatments to patients as quickly as possible," the FDA's acting commissioner, Kyle Diamantas, said in a statement. The drug targets mutations in the RAS gene family, which normally regulates cell growth, with KRAS mutations playing a key role in pancreatic cancer. These mutated proteins had long been considered "undruggable" because of a structure that made it hard for medicines to attach to them. Revolution Medicines said its drug uses what is essentially a molecular glue to bind with multiple KRAS subtypes, and the company is also studying the technology in other cancers, including lung cancer. The approval marks a new treatment option for pancreatic cancer patients and comes as several other experimental drugs are in development.With PTI Inputs - EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 26, 2026 23:54 IST