Nigel:
They're a virtual company, licensing and acquiring. Hardly seems like biotech, but..... OK.
Good nomination.
They're an extremely promotional company. They refer to RFS as their "blockbuster", and Rubinfeld claims to have talked to 70 companies about licensing. Brave talk, and a lot of "we built Amgen, we built BMS". However, RFS looks pretty good, coming out of Stehlin. And, as Peter has pointed out, the hurdle is low for pancreatic Ca.
OK, but I think we need to know more about accrual rates in the phase III.
Reuters picked it up tonight.......
Thursday April 22, 9:37 pm Eastern Time
SuperGen anticancer drug said effective
SAN RAMON, Calif., April 22 (Reuters) - Drug company SuperGen Inc.'s oral anticancer
medication is an effective treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer, the company's licensor,
the Stehlin Foundation for Cancer Research, said on Thursday.
During a recent study, which has been published in the Journal of Oncology, SuperGen's
proprietary anticancer drug, known as 9NC or RFS 2000, either shrank the tumor or stabilized the disease in 63 percent of
patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, the company said in a release.
The Phase II study, conducted at St. Joseph Hospital in Houston, evaluated the usefulness of RFS 2000 in the treatment of 107
patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.
Of the total, 60 patients completed the medication's minimal effective two month treatment period, the company said.
''These data suggest that RFS 2000 (9NC) is safe and efficacious as first-line therapy for the treatment of advanced pancreatic
cancer. It is very important to note that the patient population in our study is quite representative of the types of patients seen in
clinical practice,'' John Stehlin, the lead author of the study, said in a statement.
He noted that the drug's oral delivery method also is advantageous, since most anticancer drugs are administered intravenously,
which can be very inconvenient for patients.
In January, SuperGen, based in San Ramon, Calif., announced that it had significantly expanded its Phase III studies of RFS
2000.
In afternoon trading, SuperGen stock was up 1-11/16 at 12-3/4 on Nasdaq. |
