Last December, former Senator Ben Sasse announced he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. His doctors gave him three to four months to live.
In January, he joined a clinical trial of daraxonrasib, Revolution Medicines' pill that blocks the RAS molecular switch that was producing cancer cells. By April, his tumors had shrunk by roughly three-quarters, and he had nearly halved his daily morphine. He literally called it a "miracle" drug, and it is.
In September, after major liver surgery, Sasse learned that his tumors had developed resistance to his treatment, and his doctors switched him to aggressive chemotherapy.
Tumors grow and evolve. They carry multiple mutations, and they can escape a drug that targets only one. Wisconsin Medical College’s Razelle Kurzrock, a world leader and pioneer of precision oncology, has long argued for the alternative: “pick the right drugs for each patient based on the tumor profile.” In her pathbreaking I-PREDICT study, patients whose regimens matched more of their tumor's alterations did better than those whose regimens matched fewer. The lesson: find every vulnerability, hit them together, and do it early.
If a team of treatments lets people live longer and with fewer side effects, shouldn't we make it available as fast as possible?
That kind of combination now exists for pancreatic cancer. This month, Tango Therapeutics reported results from pairing its drug vopimetostat with RevMed's daraxonrasib. Tumors shrank in 18 of 22 pancreatic cancer patients, or 82%. Nine months in, about 88% were still alive with no cancer growth. Most had already had chemotherapy. Both drugs are pills.
This is Kurzrock's idea in action. Most pancreatic tumors grow because a gene called RAS is stuck in the “on” position. Daraxonrasib switches it off. But some of those tumors have also lost a gene called MTAP, which leaves them dependent on an enzyme called PRMT5. Vopimetostat blocks that enzyme. Each drug hits a different weak spot in the same tumor.
Tango has designed the next step, a Phase 3 trial: 484 newly diagnosed patients with metastatic, MTAP-deleted pancreatic cancer, starting in the first half of 2027. [8] It has already met with the FDA and is ready to move. Instead, it is at a standstill. The trial needs RevMed's drug, and RevMed has yet to say yes.
RevMed supplied daraxonrasib for the earlier study. And in August, it signed a deal to test its drugs with BeOne Medicines' PRMT5 drug, the same pairing Tango is pursuing. BeOne's drug is still in early testing, Tango's pairing has already shrunk tumors in 82% of pancreatic patients. BeOne has a deal. Tango is still waiting.
It appears that RevMed is putting pipeline protectionism ahead of patients. The BeOne partnership is good news, but Tango's combination has shown remarkable results and is ready for a Phase 3 trial now.
RevMed deserves credit. Daraxonrasib nearly doubled median survival in its pivotal trial, 13.2 months versus 6.7 on chemotherapy, and won FDA approval in August. But owning the backbone of the next generation of pancreatic cancer treatment carries a responsibility to patients.
Sharing that backbone is also smart business. The most valuable cancer drugs become the foundation of many regimens, with partners funding parallel trials. Merck's Keytruda, used in combinations that include other companies' drugs, brought in $31.7 billion in 2025.
The most important cost isn't financial. Every month a trial slips, some patients who could have enrolled will get sicker, lose eligibility, or die.
Ben Sasse showed the country what it takes to fight this disease with one drug. The next patient deserves a combination matched to their tumor, from day one. Pancreatic cancer doesn't negotiate. I don't know why RevMed is stalling, but they shouldn't make patients wait. The FDA has endorsed a Phase 3 trial, the data doesn't lie, and patients are running out of time.
Bob Goldberg is Vice President of The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
