Fast-To-Market Play For AstraZeneca's Acalabrutinib With MCL Filing

Never mind MYSTIC, AstraZeneca is pushing the spotlight onto its other oncology assets, and its second-generation BTK inhibitor has just been accepted for filing and given breakthrough status in the US.

AstraZeneca PLC's bid to remind observers that there is more to its oncology pipeline than MYSTIC has been spurred by two pieces of good news for its second-generation BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib: the product has been accepted for filing by the US FDA for use in second-line mantle cell lymphoma patients just a day after the agency awarded it a breakthrough therapy designation for the same indication.

While analysts were mildly disappointed that the filing, which the company previously billed as for an unspecified blood cancer, was...