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MADRID — A competition has been brewing between two pharma titans — Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca — to gain an edge in the market for targeted lung cancer treatments. A primetime presentation here Monday amounted to the latest salvo.

At the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology, J&J unveiled three studies of its drug Rybrevant in different patient groups with non-small cell lung cancer with EGFR mutations. All were successful, with the drug, sometimes used in combination with other therapies, helping stave off progression of the disease.

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In an interview, Mark Wildgust, J&J’s vice president of global medical affairs for oncology, framed the totality of the research as a case that Rybrevant could become a regularly used treatment for these patients.

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