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aw or marty,
is this already priced into the action?
fDA panel to review Warner-Lambert prostate drug
WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - A drug that has shown promise in treating late-stage prostate cancer will
be reviewed by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisers next week.
The panel of experts meeting Sept.1 will recommend whether Warner-Lambert Co.'s (WLA - news) Metaret should be approved to
treat prostate cancer that is resistant to hormone therapies.
Hormone treatments, which help turn off cancer-causing hormones, are commonly used in late-stage patients whose cancer has
spread beyond the prostate.
Metaret, which blocks some cancer growth factors, has shown promise in initial trials, according to the National Cancer Institute.
The FDA is not bound by the recommendations of its advisory panels but usually follows them.
Hambrecht & Quist analyst Alex Zisson said Metaret should win approval based on the scant data that has so far been published.
But Zisson cautioned that much was still unknown about the drug. He predicted eventual sales of several hundred million dollars, but
''it's just a stab in the dark until we see what the data really look like.''
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, killing 40,000 a year. There are about 244,000 new
cases each year in the United States.
Surgery and radiation are most often used to combat the cancer early on, when it is confined to the prostate.
But many men opt out of those procedures because they can cause incontinence or impotence. Also, many types of prostate cancer
are slow-growing, encouraging men to wait things out.
Another drug is already approved for late-stage prostate cancer, Zoladex, made by British-based Zeneca Group Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK
& Ireland: ZEN.L).
Also on Sept.1, FDA advisers will take another look at Valstar, a drug for bladder cancer made by Anthra Pharmaceuticals.
Valstar was rejected by the committee in June 1997. The panel said studies were not rigorous enough to prove Valstar worked. |
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