1 year of Herceptin still best for patients
Source: Agencies |
October 2, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE results of two studies into Roche's breast cancer drug Herceptin published yesterday showed that the current standard treatment of taking the drug for a year provides the best outcome for patients.
This removes a downside risk for Roche that could have cost the Swiss company up to US$1.5 billion in sales if the trials had showed a shorter treatment of six months would be just as effective.
But the results also limit Roche's ability to squeeze more value out of the lucrative drug before it loses its patent from 2014 because one study showed that extending the time patients take the drug to two years from one was not worthwhile.
Analysts viewed this confirmation of the status quo for treatment with Herceptin as positive for Roche.
Analysts at Chevreux's pharma team in London said the overall picture from the studies was "reassuring for the Herceptin franchise."
Analysts had said the Swiss firm, the world's biggest maker of cancer drugs, could lose up to US$1.5 billion in revenue from the blockbuster medicine in the medium term if six months treatment had been shown to be just as beneficial.
Standard of care
Herceptin, known generically as trastuzumab, was first approved in 1998 and had 2011 sales of US$5.5 billion. It is used as a treatment for around a quarter of breast cancer patients who have tumors that generate a protein called HER2, which tends to make the disease more aggressive.
Roche conducted a study investigating the benefits of using Herceptin for two years rather than one, while an opposing French study looked whether patients got the same benefit from just six months.
The Roche study found no difference in the rate at which patients' cancer recurred or in how long patients lived. The French study's results were inconclusive. Data from both trials were presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology conference yesterday in Vienna.
"The key message for 2012 is that one year of treatment with trastuzumab remains the standard of care for HER2 positive early breast cancer patients," said Richard Gelber, a professor at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who led the trial.
This removes a downside risk for Roche that could have cost the Swiss company up to US$1.5 billion in sales if the trials had showed a shorter treatment of six months would be just as effective.
But the results also limit Roche's ability to squeeze more value out of the lucrative drug before it loses its patent from 2014 because one study showed that extending the time patients take the drug to two years from one was not worthwhile.
Analysts viewed this confirmation of the status quo for treatment with Herceptin as positive for Roche.
Analysts at Chevreux's pharma team in London said the overall picture from the studies was "reassuring for the Herceptin franchise."
Analysts had said the Swiss firm, the world's biggest maker of cancer drugs, could lose up to US$1.5 billion in revenue from the blockbuster medicine in the medium term if six months treatment had been shown to be just as beneficial.
Standard of care
Herceptin, known generically as trastuzumab, was first approved in 1998 and had 2011 sales of US$5.5 billion. It is used as a treatment for around a quarter of breast cancer patients who have tumors that generate a protein called HER2, which tends to make the disease more aggressive.
Roche conducted a study investigating the benefits of using Herceptin for two years rather than one, while an opposing French study looked whether patients got the same benefit from just six months.
The Roche study found no difference in the rate at which patients' cancer recurred or in how long patients lived. The French study's results were inconclusive. Data from both trials were presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology conference yesterday in Vienna.
"The key message for 2012 is that one year of treatment with trastuzumab remains the standard of care for HER2 positive early breast cancer patients," said Richard Gelber, a professor at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who led the trial.
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