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Life Sciences & Medicine Active Updated Aug 27, 2026

A first real crack in undruggable pancreatic cancer

More than 90 percent of pancreatic tumors are driven by a mutated KRAS gene long considered too smooth a surface for any drug to grip. The FDA approved daraxonrasib, which works around KRAS indirectly through a molecule called cyclophilin A, after a trial showed median survival nearly double that of standard chemotherapy. The stakes are whether tumors develop resistance to the new drug the way they do to chemotherapy, and whether the approach opens KRAS-driven cancers more broadly to treatment.

The story so far

  1. Aug 27, 2026 Latest

    The FDA approved daraxonrasib, sold as Rasonque, for advanced pancreatic cancer on August 26 after a trial found patients lived a median of 13.2 months versus 6.7 months on standard chemotherapy, with the drug binding cyclophilin A to shut down the KRAS protein that drives more than 90 percent of pancreatic tumors.

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