July 28 (Reuters) – Hong Kong-listed Keymed Biosciences said on Tuesday a late-stage trial of sonesitatug ‌vedotin, a therapy targeting treatment for advanced ‌or metastatic gastric cancer, has achieved positive topline results.

The therapy ​is being developed by KYM Biosciences, a joint venture between Keymed and Lepu Biopharma, in collaboration with London-listed AstraZeneca.

Sonesitatug vedotin demonstrated a “highly clinically meaningful improvement” ‌in overall survival ⁠compared to standard chemotherapy in its global Phase III clinical trial, Keymed said.

The ⁠company said that the drug met a primary endpoint of overall survival for third or later-line ​treatment, as ​well as the key ​secondary endpoint of overall ‌survival in the trial population for second or later-line treatments.

However, the drug did not achieve statistical significance in its other primary goal of progression-free survival — the time a patient lives without the ‌disease worsening — though it did ​show an improving trend, Lepu ​said.

The drug was ​well-tolerated with no new safety concerns, ‌both Keymed and Lepu said ​in exchange ​filings.

Based on the positive clinical trial results, AstraZeneca has announced that the estimated peak sales ​for the ‌product will be between $3.0 billion and $5.0 billion, Keymed ​said.

(Reporting by Nikita Maria Jino in Bengaluru; ​Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)