Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2008
NEW YORK -- Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. said a lung cancer trial of its flagship drug Nexavar was halted because of increased death in patients taking the drug.
Lung cancer was seen as a crucial future growth driver for Nexavar, but the drug's near-term prospects likely remain solid as its launch in treating liver cancer continues.
Despite the setback for Onyx, the news is positive for Genentech Inc.'s Avastin, which is well established in the lung cancer market, and for ImClone Systems Inc.'s Erbitux, which is also attempting to enter the market.
"These results don't change our long-term outlook or our confidence that Nexavar can become a standard of care across multiple tumor types," said Hollings Renton, president, Onyx chairman and chief executive, in a conference call.
Nexavar, jointly developed by Onyx and Bayer AG, is approved in more than 60 countries for advanced kidney cancer and in the U.S. and Europe for liver cancer.
Lung cancer was seen as a crucial future growth driver for Nexavar, but the drug's near-term prospects likely remain solid as its launch in treating liver cancer continues.
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In March of 1995 I went for a routine physical just because I had not had one for three years. I had no symptoms. I did mention to my doctor that about six weeks before I had a period of severe stomach acidity for several weeks. I took a lot of alka seltzer, gave up coffee and tea. Began to drink about a quart of milk a day and the upset went away.
The blood test showed a little anemia. Doctor ordered an endoscopy. Endoscopy revealed a tumor which biopsied positive.
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