After the close of market yesterday, Amgen (AMGN) announced that the longevity of colon cancer patients improved significantly when treated with a combination of its cancer drug Vectibix and Folfox — a standard chemotherapy drug regimen rather than with chemotherapy alone. The company intends to present detailed results of the trial later this year.
The results are based on a late-stage trial (n=1183) and are applicable to patients with the normal version of a gene known as KRAS. 90% of the patients were identified with KRAS mutations that are associated with more aggressive cancers and lower survival rates.
Skin toxicity coupled with low magnesium blood levels and diarrhea were the side-effects of the study which tests Vectibix as a primary (first-line) treatment for the disease. Currently the drug can be marketed only for colon cancer patients who have unsuccessfully used two other therapies.
Colorectal cancer ranks fourth among cancers affecting men and third in women. It results in more than 630,000 deaths a year and is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the West. We believe that the data from the late-stage Vectibix study is good news for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
Vectibix sales were $153 million in 2008 which was far less than the $802 million recorded by Erbitux, which was developed by ImClone Systems and now sold by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY) and Eli Lilly (LLY). Erbitux has been approved to treat head and neck cancer as well.
The positive results of Vectibix caused Amgen’s shares to rise by 8 cents in after-hours trading.
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