PLD/carboplatin to replace paclitaxel/carboplatin as gold-standard treatment for platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that although platinum-based treatment will continue to be the standard of care for first- and second-line treatment of platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD)/carboplatin will replace paclitaxel/carboplatin as the standard second-line treatment for patients who remain platinum sensitive.

The Pharmacor 2010 findings from the topic entitled Ovarian Cancer which will publish later this month reveal that, since the publication of data last year from the CALYPSO clinical trial, PLD (Centocor Ortho Biotech/Janssen's Doxil, Merck's Caelyx) is being increasingly used in combination with carboplatin (Bristol-Myers Squibb's Paraplatin, generics) as an alternative to paclitaxel (Bristol-Myers Squibb's Taxol, generics)/carboplatin in the second-line, platinum-sensitive population. As a result, Decision Resources forecasts that PLD/carboplatin will replace paclitaxel/carboplatin by 2019 as the gold-standard treatment in this setting in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan.

According to the findings, urgent unmet need remains for therapies that can delay or prevent progression to platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

"Experts we interviewed believe that such gains in addressing unmet need will most likely come from novel targeted agents," said Decision Resources Analyst Niamh Murphy, Ph.D. "As such, the need exists to identify other genetic characteristics -- in addition to BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations -- that will lead to the development of novel, molecularly targeted drugs which will benefit patients with ovarian cancer."

The findings also reveal that dramatic growth in the ovarian cancer drug market through 2019 will be driven primarily by the approval and uptake of four premium priced targeted therapies -- Roche/Genentech/Chugai's Avastin, Eisai/Morphotek's farletuzumab, AstraZeneca's olaparib and Sanofi-Aventis' iniparib. Avastin will be the first targeted therapy to enter the market, following its expected approval in the U.S. and Europe in 2012 and in Japan in 2014.