AstraZeneca completes global licensing deal for lung cancer therapy Zegfrovy

AstraZeneca has completed its previously announced licensing deal with Dizal Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, giving the company exclusive global rights to develop and commercialise Zegfrovy (sunvozertinib), an oral irreversible epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor being developed for lung cancer.

Zegfrovy is currently approved in the US and China as a second line treatment for adults with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumours carry EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations.

Patients with this form of NSCLC have a real world five year overall survival rate that can be as low as 8%, highlighting the need for additional therapies.¹ Zegfrovy is already commercially available in China for second line use, while AstraZeneca plans to introduce the drug in the US during the fourth quarter of 2026 for the same indication.

Sunvozertinib is also included in the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for NSCLC, where it is recommended as a subsequent treatment option for patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC harbouring EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations.²

AstraZeneca is also seeking to expand Zegfrovy into the first line setting. The US Food and Drug Administration has accepted a supplemental New Drug Application based on positive findings from the global Phase III WU-KONG28 trial, which evaluated Zegfrovy as an initial treatment for NSCLC with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations.

Results from WU-KONG28 were presented as a Late-Breaking Abstract Oral Presentation at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and were published simultaneously in The New England Journal of Medicine.

An application for first line approval has also been submitted to China’s Center for Drug Evaluation. Both the FDA and the CDE have granted Zegfrovy Breakthrough Therapy Designation for this treatment setting.

Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will pay Dizal $600 million upfront. Dizal is also eligible to receive up to a further $900 million if specified development, regulatory and sales milestones are achieved, in addition to tiered royalties based on worldwide Zegfrovy sales.

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Related Topics and Keywords

AstraZeneca, Cancer, cancer research, cancer treatment, drug development, lung cancer, lung cancer treatment, Oncology, pharmanews, ZEGFROVY