Anglo-Swedish drugs giant PLC () has been granted a priority review for a new drug’s use in a particularly aggressive and untreated form of lung cancer.

Imfinzi, which is already prescribed to treat bladder cancer, is being fast-tracked by the US Food & Drug Administration for deployment in patients with late-stage small cell lung cancer.

AZ hopes to have a product on the market early next year.

The application was supported by data from the phase III CASPIAN trial published in The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals.

This showed Imfinzi in combination with the standard chemotherapy extended patients’ lives by a statistically significant three months.