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Cancer drug Tarceva improves patients' survival, study shows

By Anita Greil
Dow Jones Newswires

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The drug was discovered by OSI Pharmaceuticals and in-licensed by Genentech for the United States and Roche for other markets. Roche owns a majority stake in Genentech.

Shares of OSI Pharmaceuticals surged $52.96, or 139 percent, to close the day at $91.10.

Shares of Genentech jumped $13.77, or 12 percent, to end at $131.99.

The drug is the first of its kind to show in a big study that the approach can extend survival of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, the most common form. It accounts for almost 80 percent of all lung cancer, a disease that kills 1.1 million people a year.

Tarceva is one of a new generation of cancer medications designed to take direct aim at cancer cells. Traditional chemotherapy drugs are toxins that kill many normal cells as well as tumors, one reason they often result in serious side effects such as nausea, hair loss and susceptibility to infection.

"We will be striving to make Tarceva available as quickly as possible to patients," said William Burns, head of Roche's Pharmaceuticals Division.

Analysts raised their estimates for Tarceva's potential revenue to between $700 million and $1 billion on the positive trial data.

The findings of the study came as somewhat of a surprise after Tarceva, in earlier studies, failed to prolong survival in patients with metastatic lung cancer when used as first-line treatment, meaning the patients hadn't yet been treated with other medicines. At the time, two studies in which Tarceva was used with traditional chemotherapy showed no sign of helping lung-cancer patients live longer.

This latest study of more than 700 patients looked at the benefits of using Tarceva alone, without chemotherapy, in patients who had already had chemotherapy treatment. The study met its primary endpoint of improving overall survival, with patients on Tarceva living longer than those who have been given a placebo.

Analysts said they expect Roche to launch Tarceva late next year, or early in 2006.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company