Zactima

AstraZeneca PLC
31 October 2005



 FDA GRANTS ZD6474 (ZACTIMA(TM)) ORPHAN DRUG DESIGNATION FOR THE INVESTIGATION 
                         OF RARE FORMS OF THYROID CANCER


AstraZeneca announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has
granted ZD6474 (ZACTIMA(TM)) Orphan Drug designation for the treatment of
patients with follicular, medullary, anaplastic, and locally advanced and
metastatic papillary thyroid cancer.  ZD6474 is a unique once-daily oral therapy
that selectively targets key cell signalling pathways involved in tumour growth
and spread including VEGF (Vascular endothelial growth factor) receptor
signalling and EGF (Epidermal growth factor) receptor signalling.  ZD6474 also
inhibits RET kinase, which drives the growth and survival of certain tumours,
and is believed to be an important pathway in medullary thyroid cancer.


ZD6474 is currently being developed in a Phase II clinical trial in medullary
thyroid cancer and Phase III clinical trials in advanced non-small cell lung
cancer are scheduled to start in the next few months.


Advanced hereditary medullary thyroid cancer, a rare malignancy, has a poor
prognosis and there are currently very limited therapeutic options available.
Medullary thyroid cancer is a specific form of thyroid cancer that comprises 2-3
per cent of the 25,000 new cases of the disease in the US each year.  Neither
standard chemotherapeutic regimens, nor radiation therapy, provide substantial
benefits in patients with advanced hereditary medullary thyroid carcinoma.


Orphan-drug designation was designed to promote the development of products that
demonstrate promise for the diagnosis and/or treatment of rare diseases or
conditions, specifically, those that affect less than 200,000 people in the US.


ZD6474 is the first oncology orphan-drug designation AstraZeneca has received.
AstraZeneca has also applied for Orphan Drug designation for ZD6474 in medullary
thyroid cancer in Europe.



For more information about AstraZeneca, please visit: www.astrazeneca.com


31st October 2005


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