Bristol breast cancer drug aims at sickest women
Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:52pm
By Ransdell Pierson
[I believe it is by and large positive for Kosan if BMY's drug is approved. It opens the gate, so to say, for a drug that (acc. to Kosan) is superior].
NEW YORK, Oct 15 (Reuters) - A new type of treatment for advanced breast cancer could win U.S. approval this week and offer an option for patients whose cancer has continued to spread despite treatment with existing therapies.
The medicine, called ixabepilone, could generate annual sales of $500 million by 2012 and help Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) reclaim a leadership role in oncology, according to industry analysts.
An estimated 160,000 women, and a relatively small number of men, in the United States are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. About 40,000 die of the disease despite treatment with leading current drugs such as Bristol's older Taxol, Sanofi-Aventis' (SASY.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) Taxotere and Roche Holding AG's (ROG.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) Xeloda.
"Although three-fourths of breast cancer patients are responding well to existing tools, many are developing very advanced and protracted cancer because their tumors have developed resistance to existing drugs," Renzo Canetta, a senior Bristol-Myers research official, said in an interview.
The New York-based company has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve ixabepilone as a stand-alone treatment, or in combination with Xeloda, for patients whose breast cancer has spread despite prior treatments.
Among patients taking it with Xeloda in clinical trials, tumors either shrank or did not grow for an average of 5.8 months. That was a statistically significant improvement compared to the 4.2 months seen for patients taking only Xeloda.
Two ongoing trials are expected to determine by late 2008 whether ixabepilone actually prolongs survival, Canetta said.
"If the data show a survival benefit, that would make it more compelling to use against earlier-stage breast cancer," he said.
reuters.com |
