On Nov. 5, 2026, the Lombardy regional government authorized the Lecco local health authority, Asst di Lecco, to purchase the U.S.-approved cancer drug daraxonrasib for Jessica Scarpa, a 36-year-old mother of two 3-year-old twins with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma, with the region covering the entire cost, healthy.thewom.it reported. The decision broke with a grim expectation: in metastatic pancreatic cancer, gaining a few weeks of life had until recently been considered a result.
Scarpa, of Olginate in the province of Lecco, had undergone a surgery lasting more than 10 hours and 12 cycles of chemotherapy before the disease returned in her liver, tuttonotizie.eu reported. In late October she and her husband opened an online fundraiser to buy the drug in the United States; it drew more than €500,000 from nearly 15,000 donors, and she suspended it on Nov. 6 after the region stepped in.
A pill that doubled median survival in the trial
The drug targets the engine of this cancer. More than 90% of pancreatic cancer patients carry an altered RAS gene, and for decades RAS was considered impossible to hit, leaving intravenous chemotherapy as the main treatment, healthy.thewom.it reported. Daraxonrasib, taken as one pill a day, binds to a cellular protein called cyclophilin A; together they form a complex that cuts the RAS signal in its active form.
In the phase 3 RASolute 302 trial of 500 patients with metastatic disease already treated with one chemotherapy, those who received the drug lived a median 13.2 months versus 6.7 months on chemotherapy — a 60% reduction in the risk of death. Figures published by the European Medicines Agency put the median at 12.4 months. The time before the tumor resumed growing doubled, from 3.6 to 7.2 months. The most common side effects were skin rashes, diarrhea, mouth inflammation, nausea and vomiting; serious adverse events were slightly less frequent than with chemotherapy, about 62% versus 70%.
Oncologist Lorenza Rimassa of Humanitas cautioned that these are medians — months added on average, not a cure — though in a disease where second-line therapy had been stuck for years, doubling survival remains a landmark result, healthy.thewom.it reported.
Approved in America, still waiting in Italy
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized daraxonrasib on Aug. 26, 2026, about six and a half months ahead of its deadline, healthy.thewom.it reported. On Oct. 15, the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use issued a positive opinion, but the European Commission’s decision and Italy’s price and reimbursement talks with AIFA are still pending. Italy has no compassionate-use program for the drug, so the only route is importing it for an individual patient — against a U.S. list price of $39,800 for 30 days of therapy. dailyhealthindustry.it calculated that a full year of treatment would theoretically cost about $478,000 per patient, before discounts and import costs.
One mother’s case becomes a test of equal access
Regional welfare councilor Guido Bertolaso said Lombardy intends to turn the single case into a protocol for all patients in the same conditions. “We have already negotiated the path: we have authorized Asst di Lecco, where mother Jessica lives, to buy the drug in the United States and then administer it to the patient at the region’s expense,” he said, tuttonotizie.eu reported. Bertolaso added that the region wants to use the case to secure the drug “for all those who should find themselves in the same conditions as this mother,” dailyhealthindustry.it reported.
The stakes are large. An AboutPharma estimate cited by healthy.thewom.it puts potentially eligible Lombardy patients at 500 to 1,000, for a cost of €120 million to €140 million — a figure several oncologists call unsustainable. Michele Reni of San Raffaele in Milan said access must rest on clear clinical criteria, including for patients who never make the newspapers, and noted that an independent study called Cassandra cost less than one year of therapy for a single patient. The risk, as healthy.thewom.it put it, is that a treatment becomes available based on region of residence or the visibility of one’s story; national price negotiation exists precisely to prevent that.
Scarpa herself pointed the same way. “I’m grateful — think of the others too,” she told tuttonotizie.eu. She had publicly promised that if the treatment arrived free in Italy, she would give every cent of the more than €500,000 raised to the AIRC Foundation for cancer research.
What still works for everyone
Pancreatic cancer accounts for about 14,800 new diagnoses a year in Italy and is the country’s third-leading cause of cancer death, healthy.thewom.it reported. Roughly eight in ten cases are discovered after the disease has already spread. Smoking doubles the risk, and AIOM data cited by healthy.thewom.it indicate that eliminating it could prevent a third of deaths; obesity, chronic pancreatitis and type 2 diabetes complete the risk picture.
What patients still want to know about daraxonrasib
How much does daraxonrasib cost? The U.S. wholesale list price is $39,800 for a 30-day supply, dailyhealthindustry.it reported — roughly $478,000 per patient per year at the recommended daily dose.
What did the key trial show? In RASolute 302, the drug doubled median survival versus chemotherapy — 13.2 months versus 6.7 months — among 500 previously treated patients with metastatic disease, healthy.thewom.it reported.
When could other Italian patients get it? That depends on the European Commission decision, AIFA price negotiations and the protocol Bertolaso said Lombardy is building; no date has been given.
Has Jessica Scarpa started treatment? The region announced the authorization on Nov. 5, but as tuttonotizie.eu noted, Bertolaso did not say when the drug will actually arrive in Lecco.
The question still open is timing. Bertolaso has not said when the drug will reach Lecco, and for every other patient the path runs through Brussels and Rome: the European Commission has yet to decide, and AIFA has not opened price talks. Until then, the contrast stands — a therapy that adds months of life for some, and a half-million-euro fundraiser for one mother.
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