Eli Lilly (LLY) just dropped some promising news for patients with certain blood cancers. On Sunday, the company announced that its Phase 3 BRUIN CLL-322 trial hit its primary endpoint: adding Jaypirca (pirtobrutinib) to a standard two-year regimen of venetoclax and rituximab significantly improved progression-free survival in people with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL).
Specifically, the combination cut the risk of disease progression or death by 45% compared to venetoclax and rituximab alone. That's a big deal for patients who have already tried other treatments and need new options.
The study enrolled 639 patients, nearly 80% of whom had previously been treated with a covalent BTK inhibitor — a common class of drugs for these cancers. Patients were randomly assigned to get either pirtobrutinib plus venetoclax and rituximab (the PVR combo) or just venetoclax and rituximab (VR).
Based on a data cutoff from February 2, 2026, and a median follow-up of 27.3 months, the PVR group showed a clear advantage. Median progression-free survival wasn't even reached in the PVR arm, meaning most patients hadn't progressed by the end of the study period. In the VR-only group, median progression-free survival was 39.7 months.
The benefit held across different patient subgroups, including those who had already taken covalent BTK inhibitors and those with high-risk genetic features like TP53 mutations, 17p deletion, unmutated IGHV, or complex karyotype. That's important because these patients often have fewer effective treatment options.
On secondary endpoints, the data also favored the Jaypirca combo. While overall survival data are still too early to draw conclusions, another measure — time to next treatment — showed a hazard ratio of 0.50, meaning patients on the PVR regimen went significantly longer before needing another therapy.
Lilly plans to present the full results in a late-breaking oral session at the 2026 European Hematology Association Annual Meeting, and they'll also be featured in the conference's press program. The company intends to submit the data to global regulators to expand Jaypirca's label. They're also running several other Phase 3 studies of Jaypirca in CLL/SLL, so this drug could have more to offer down the line.
As for Lilly's stock, shares were down a hair — 0.19% — at $1,130.86 on Monday, hovering near the 52-week high of $1,182.73. Not a huge move, but the market's digesting the news.
For patients and doctors, this is another arrow in the quiver against these stubborn blood cancers. And for Lilly, it's a step toward making Jaypirca a bigger player in the oncology space.
