An experimental lung cancer drug developed by the company Eli Lilly and Co significantly improved survival rates in lung cancer patients.

Lilly needs new drugs to offset declining sales of its older drugs as they lose patent protection.

The drug has already been shown be successful in treating stomach cancer, and Lilly is waiting for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market it for that disease.

The latest results could help allay some concerns about the drug after it failed to delay the progression of breast cancer in a late-stage trial last year.

The late-stage lung cancer trial compared a combination of ramucirumab and a common chemotherapy drug, docetaxel, with a combination of a placebo and docetaxel in treating patients with non-small cell lung cancer, Fox News reports.

The trial showed that ramucirumab significantly improved overall survival rates.