Merck KGaA’s Erbitux Delays Progression of Breast Cancer in Test
Eli Lilly & Co. and Merck KGaA’s Erbitux delayed the spread of breast cancer by about two months in a study of women with a certain type of aggressive tumor.
Adding Erbitux to chemotherapy lengthened the time before patients’ cancer progressed from a median 1.5 months to 3.7 months, according to a mid-stage study released today at the European Society for Medical Oncology conference in Milan. Twenty percent of Erbitux patients saw their cancer shrink or disappear, versus 10 percent of those on chemotherapy alone.
While Erbitux didn’t provide as large a benefit as researchers had targeted, the results from the 173-patient study show that the drug has “a role in treating breast cancer,” lead researcher Jose Baselga, associate director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston, said in a conference call with reporters.
“The study in my mind is vastly positive,” Baselga said. The results may be grounds for the bigger final-stage studies that would be needed to win regulatory approval for the use of Erbitux against breast cancer, he said.
Erbitux, known chemically as cetuximab, is approved for advanced colon cancer as well as head and neck tumors. Yesterday, a study presented at the Milan conference showed the drug may not be effective with certain oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy combinations. Today’s study used a different kind of chemotherapy.
Lilly, based in Indianapolis, and New York-based Bristol- Myers Squibb Co. market Erbitux in the U.S., while Merck, based in Darmstadt and unrelated to the U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co., sells it elsewhere.
Merck will make a final decision about whether to pursue more trials of Erbitux in breast cancer after final results from today’s study are available, spokeswoman Phyllis Carter said by e-mail.
To contact the reporter on this story: Naomi Kresge in Berlin at nkresge@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.netnet
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