Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is also a co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard. You can reach Adam on Signal at stataf.54.

MADRID — A targeted drug from Incyte, when used in combination with chemotherapy, induced lasting tumor responses in certain patients with pancreatic cancer — results, the biotech said, that support its prior decision to advance the treatment into a late-stage clinical trial.

The approval of Revolution Medicines’ pancreatic cancer drug Rasonque earlier this year showed that a medicine capable of attacking mutations in a group of genes called RAS could prolong survival for patients with the particularly aggressive cancer. 

Now, companies like Incyte, Revolution Medicines, Verastem, and China’s Hengrui are developing next-generation drugs that selectively target specific mutations within the RAS family of genes, seeking even better results for patients.