Roche Touts Drug For ESMO

Roche Drug T-DM1 Outdoes Herceptin With Chemotherapy

By Rob Waters - Oct 8, 2010 3:02 PM ET Tweet (1)LinkedIn Share

Roche Holding AG said its two-drug treatment combining an anticancer agent with Herceptin, the company’s $5.27-billion breast cancer drug, was about as effective as, and caused fewer side effects than, Herceptin with chemotherapy.

The results, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Milan, were the first to measure the effectiveness of Roche’s experimental drug called trastuzumab- DM1 as an initial therapy in patients with a particular subtype of breast cancer. T-DM1 is a member of a new class of experimental drugs called antibody-drug conjugates that combine antibodies and anticancer drugs.

Roche and Immunogen Develop Highly Targeted Specific Cancer Drugs

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Articles Today about Roche's partnership with ImmunoGen on TDM-1.  TDM-1 is a highly targeted cancer drug for Breast Cancer.

ImmunoGen-(IMGN)

Roche Holdings (RHHBY)

Drugs

ImmunoGen's TDM-1 Looks Strong at ESMO

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- The "armed antibody" drug TDM-1 under development by Roche and ImmunoGen(IMGN) posted a higher response rate and lower toxicity than the blockbuster breast cancer drug Herceptin, according to results from the first head-to-head study of the two drugs to be presented at a European cancer meeting Monday.


The data from the TDM-1 phase II study in front-line breast cancer patients are early and very preliminary, but also encouraging because they suggest TDM-1 may be the next-generation successor to Herceptin that Roche has been looking for.

ImmunoGen, as Roche's partner on TDM-1, stands to profit as well if the drug is approved and successful.

Cytokinetics Shows Favorable Phase II results

Cytokinetics (CYTK) is a clinical trial drugmaker that has been making some ground-breaking news this past week. They have numerous clinical trials taking place right now ranging from oncology (breast cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) to high risk heart failure. Their stock has risen in the past week from 3.50 to a high of 5.00 Monday afternoon 092209. Today the stock is trading at 4.67. Currently, they are recruiting patients for 3 Clinical Trials for their pipeline medications. Here is their ClinicalTrials.gov link: Cytokinetics Trials

Cytokinetics recently announced favorable Phase II data from last week for its Heart Failure medication. Here is the presss release from their website.

Cytokinetics Presents Phase IIa Clinical Trials Data on Omecamtiv Mecarbil at the 2009 Heart Failure Society of America Annual Meeting