In this week’s edition of InnovationRx, we look at Revolution Medicine’s pancreatic cancer pill, the top self-made healthcare entrepreneurs, the latest 30 Under 30 Science & Healthcare list, and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.

Pancreatic cancer has long been one of the worst diagnoses a person could get. A new drug from Revolution Medicines may offer some hope. In clinical trial results announced Monday, patients with metastatic cancer who took the company’s targeted pill lived nearly twice as long as patients who received chemotherapy, or a median of 13.2 months versus 6.7 months.

RevMed’s pill, daraxonrasib, works by blocking a group of genes called RAS that drive tumor growth. The company said that it would use the new data to apply for FDA approval under an expedited review program.

“We all were and are gobsmacked by this result,” Revolution Medicines CEO Mark Goldsmith told Forbes. “It is elevating the survival bar in one of the deadliest human cancers.”

Pancreatic cancer tends to be diagnosed late when the cancer is already advanced and difficult to treat. Five-year survival rates for pancreatic adenocarcinoma (the most common type) are just 8%. (Even when it’s caught early, the five-year survival rate is only 44%). The American Cancer Society forecasts that some 67,530 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year and 52,740 will die of the disease.

Ben Sasse, the former Nebraska senator who announced in December that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, said in a video with the New York Times last week that he was on Revolution Medicine’s drug as part of a trial. Appearing with bloody splotches on his face (a harsh side effect of daraxonrasib), he said that the medication had shrunk his tumors by 76% since December and that he had been able to cut back his pain medications.

Third........

© Forbes