Merrimack Pharmaceuticals and its partners at Sanofi ($SNY) are back with another trial failure to report on the biotech's lead drug, MM-121. Combined with exemestane, the drug failed to improve progression-free survival among a group of ER/PR+, HER2 negative breast cancer patients. This is the third such setback for the program, though investigators quickly attempted to shift attention to indications that certain subpopulations benefit while another study provided indications of a positive effect on pathologic complete responses when compared with the control arm.
A few weeks ago Merrimack ($MACK) reported that MM-121 had failed to hit the PFS mark for ovarian cancer. And back in April, there was a flop for lung cancer. But in every case, the biotech pounced on an improved understanding of the biomarkers involved and signs of promise in breaking down the cancer groups into particular subpopulations.
That may not be much comfort for Sanofi, though, which has had to wrestle this year with a series of setbacks for its oncology R&D division. A few days ago, the pharma giant had to shutter a program for fedratinib after the FDA ordered a clinical halt when myelofibrosis patients developed Wernicke's encephalopathy--a neurological condition spurred by biochemical brain lesions. And earlier in the year iniparib was a total writeoff after back-to-back Phase III failures for lung cancer.
Read more: Sanofi, Merrimack rack up third straight failure for lead cancer drug - FierceBiotech http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/sanofi-merrimack-rack-third-straight-failure-lead-cancer-drug/2013-11-26#ixzz2lxvNpcWO
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