Forbes
ASCO: Four Winning Cancer Drugs
NEW ORLEANS - The annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology is a much-watched arena for biotech concerns, which get their first chance to present new data to investors. Here are four companies that have doctors talking about their drugs.
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ImClone Systems
Erbitux
Colon Cancer, Head-And-Neck Cancer </FONT>
For the first time, ImClone Systems' (nasdaq: IMCL - news - people ) Erbitux has been proven to extend patients' lives. (In previous studies, it shrank tumors.) The new results for the drug are in head-and-neck cancer, a kind of tumor in the throat and mouth that is difficult to treat. The results are seen as proof of the drug's efficacy. "It takes a monkey off the back of a drug that's taken some hits," says Leonard Saltz, an oncologist from Memorial Sloan-Kettering who played a role in Erbitux's development. For ImClone and partner Bristol-Myers Squibb (nyse: BMY - news - people ), that's good news indeed.
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Millennium Pharmaceuticals
Velcade
Myeloma, Lung Cancer </FONT>
Some analysts are disappointed with the sales of Millennium's (nasdaq: MLNM - news - people ) Velcade as a treatment for multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. Yet many are watching to see whether the drug can work in other cancers, particularly those that form big, solid tumors. Early evidence came from a presentation using Velcade in non-small-cell lung cancer in a mere 53 patients. Bruce Johnson, an oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, says the results look good, but very preliminary. Roman Perez-Soles, chairman of the department of oncology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, picked Velcade as one of the more promising new drugs presented at the meeting.
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Telik
Telcyta
Ovarian Cancer, Lung Cancer </FONT>
Another drug Perez-Soles is watching is Telcyta, a drug being developed by tiny Palo Alto, Calif.-based Telik (nasdaq: TELK - news - people ). The drug showed some activity in lung cancer, and continues to show positive results in ovarian cancer--the disease for which Telik expects to file for approval. In an analysis of eight patients who took the drug with chemotherapy, presented by James Kavenaugh of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, all of the subjects at least saw their disease stabilize; one actually had a complete response, meaning the cancer disappeared. The results are preliminary but promising. "The preliminary data about activity are really, really nice," says Lee Rosen, director of developmental therapeutics at St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica, Calif. "I've seen a number of patients receive benefit from that drug."
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Pfizer
SU11248
Kidney Cancer </FONT>
With the news of efficacy of its SU11248 pill in kidney cancer, Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ) is making its entry into the world of targeted cancer drugs. Another drug from Bayer (nyse: BAY - news - people ) and Onyx Pharmaceuticals (nasdaq: ONXX - news - people ) presented comparable results. Pfizer's oncology division now has a full pipeline. One piece of news that may get lost: An antibody drug the company tested in a 39-person trial caused the disease to vanish, at least temporarily, in two skin cancer patients given only a single dose. Luis Camacho, the oncologist at M.D. Anderson who conducted the trial, says that these patients have not seen their cancer return after more than a year. A surprise bonus: An observational study showed that cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as Pfizer's Lipitor, may cut the risk of cancer, though the results were extremely preliminary.
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