Published on January 4, 2010 at 12:46 AM
BioMedReports.Com, the news portal which covers
Wall Street's biomedical sector and delivers financial and investment
intelligence to a community of highly informed investors, is reporting Pfizer
Inc. has announced that it has decided to discontinue the late-stage study of
its lung cancer candidate figitumumab (CP-751,871) while Novelos' (OTCBB: NVLT)
pivotal Phase 3 trial, with a primary efficacy endpoint of improvement in median
overall survival, continues across approximately 12 countries and 100 clinical
sites.
Yesterday, it was reported that an independent data monitoring committee found
by analyzing data from Pfizer's late-stage study that the addition of figitumumab
to a combination of older medications -- paclitaxel and carboplatin -- was
unlikely to meet the primary endpoint of improving overall survival compared
to the combination of paclitaxel and carboplatin alone.
Meanwhile, Novelos' randomized, open-label, international, pivotal Phase 3
trial continues evaluating NOV-002 in combination with paclitaxel and
carboplatin versus paclitaxel and carboplatin alone, in approximately 900
patients with Stage IIIb/IV lung cancer.
Other drugs like motesanib, by Takeda Pharmaceutical and Amgen and Nexavar, from
Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, have shown negative effects in that cell type,
leaving the market wide open for Novelos' NOV-002.
"We actually potentiate the chemotherapy," said Palmin in a recent interview
with BioMedReports. "We make the cancer cells more sensitive to chemotherapy
and we also inhibit the cancer's ability to metastasize (spread), so there are
all sorts of interesting effects that happen at the tumor level. However, on
the normal cells -- for example bone marrow cells and blood cells -- which of
course get damaged by chemotherapy -- we don't stop the damage but we do help
the recovery from that damage. In the words of big pharma, 'if this Phase III
trial is positive, this will be revolutionary for the cancer field.'"
The complete report is available now at BioMedReports.Com:
http://biomedreports.com/articles/most-popular/23144-pfizer-stops-lung-cancer-study-while-novelos-patients-continue-to-live-longer.html
SOURCE: BioMedReports.Com
4b2f87d9-dbb6-4dc8-b954-92c454b8b9da|4|5.0
Posted in: Drug Trial News | Medical Condition News
Tags: Bone, Bone Marrow, Cancer, Carboplatin, Cell, Chemotherapy, Investment, Lung Cancer, Nexavar, Paclitaxel, Pfizer