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Posts with tag cancer drug
Posted Sep 14th 2007 5:47PM by Brian White
Filed under: Drug, All Cancers
It's interesting when a drug is re-purposed into something aimed at fighting cancer, but that is what has happened to Evista, a prescription drug made by Eli Lilly which was originally for osteoporosis patients.
The FDA has officially approved
Evista for use in breast cancer patients as of late this week, although the drug will now come with a box warning advising patients of a heightened risk for stroke by taking the drug.
I'm not sure -- are some drugs worth the possible benefits when certain side effects can be just as bad as what is trying to be treated?
Posted Sep 10th 2007 4:21PM by Brian White
Filed under: All Cancers, Clinical Trials
The Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical giant Merck have agreed on a "special protocol assessment" that will determine if the cancer drug oral deforolimus for
patients with cancer of the body's connective tissue(s).Merck and partner Ariad will begin patient enrollment for deforolimus later in September, with progression-free survival being the endpoint of the Phase III trial. The second endpoint? How about overall patient survival?
Since there are currently very few effective treatments for sarcoma cancers, my bet is that this new drug will be on the market the date the Phase III trial officially concludes.
Posted Aug 24th 2007 5:01PM by Brian White
Filed under: Drug, Lung Cancer
Looks like Roche's Avastin anti-cancer drug has received approval by the European Union for the treatment of lung cancer. The treatment will be available to non-small cell lung cancer patients in concert with traditional chemotherapy.
Although Avastin has shown to
prolong survival over one year in those diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer, one has to wonder why it's being suggested for use with chemotherapy at the same time. Will it help the cancer patient live easier through chemotherapy treatments?
Is prolonging the lives of cancer patients an additional year (or more) the sole purpose for the approval of Avastin? One has to ask these hard questions in an age where there are still no cures for cancer, although targeted drug like Avastin -- which targets and kills cancer cells by taking out their blood supply -- are indeed steps forward.
Posted Jul 25th 2007 1:01PM by Brian White
Filed under: Prostate Cancer, Drug
With prostate cancer being one of the most deadly forms for men to suffer from, the introduction of more pharmaceutical drugs that specifically treat prostate cancer are sure to increase.
One of the first such subjects is GPC Biotech AG's Orplatna, which is getting a reprieve by and FDA advisory panel. The panel suggested to the FDA that more evidence (like clinical trials, I suppose) is needed
before Orplatna is approved for use in the U.S. for prostate cancer patients.
The panel suggested that data needed to be shown that showed whether or not Orplatna-using patients lived longer than others who received a placebo. In other words, hard data on survival rate needs to be shown, and GPC Biotech AG's response is that it will take at least a year for that to become available.
Posted Jul 13th 2007 6:01PM by Brian White
Filed under: Drug, All Cancers
It appears pharmaceutical giant Merck is wanting to get a larger piece of the cancer drug pie. The company iaspartnering with Ariad Pharmaceuticals
to develop a new cancer treatment (in an experimental stage) with the potential to make the smaller Ariad over a billion greenbacks.
Genentech's Avastin has
been selling like hotcakes lately, and the world is sure to see a slew of new-generation cancer drugs by 2010 if my crystal ball is correct. Right now, Ariad's experimental cancer drug -- known as 'AP23573' -- is helping define a new category of cancer drugs that block certain proteins and effectively "starve" cancer cells.
To the delight of both Ariad and Merck, AP23573 is on "fast track" mode for a quicker review (and most likely, approval) and it's also been set at a status by the FDA which promotes treatments for rare diseases.
