On the "good news" side of Roche's ledger today, the company announced results of a big study that shows Herceptin significantly prolongs the life of stomach cancer patients when added to standard chemotherapy. It's the second chunk of positive data for Herceptin in 10 days; last week, a study showed the drug benefits HER2-positive breast cancer patients for several years after treatment is concluded.
In the international stomach-cancer trial, known as ToGA, Herceptin "significantly" prolonged the lives of patients with HER2-positive, advanced stomach cancer. "This is definitely good news," Helvea analyst Karl-Heinz Koch told Dow Jones. And according to Roche's pharma CEO Bill Burns, "The ToGA study shows for the first time that Herceptin extends the lives of patients in a cancer other than breast cancer."
About 900,000 new cases of stomach cancer are diagnosed each year, with 22 percent of stomach tumors deemed HER2-positive.
Developed by Genentech--which, as you know, just agreed to a merger with Roche--Herceptin is marketed in Japan by Chugai Pharmaceuticals, internationally by Roche, and in the U.S. by Genentech.
- check out the release from Roche [1]
- see the Dow Jones article [2]
Related Articles:
Cancer confab may boost Novartis, GSK [3]
Pfizer, Roche suffer as big drugs falter [4]
High-priced meds spur dosing debate [5]
Expensive Herceptin draws fire in UK [6] (Nov 2007)
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercebiotech.com/press-releases/herceptin-now-shown-significantly-prolong-lives-patients-her2-positive-advanced-stoma
[2] http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/marches/roche-s-herceptin-extends-life-in-aggressive-stomach-cancer-635674
[3] http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/cancer-confab-may-boost-novartis-gsk/2008-12-12
[4] http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/pfizer-roche-suffer-as-big-drugs-falter/2008-04-17
[5] http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/high-priced-meds-spur-dosing-debate/2008-03-17
[6] http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/expensive-herceptin-draws-fire-uk/2007-11-30