Cancer drug Erbitux extended the lives of patients more than seven months longer suffering from a form of advanced colon cancer than those taking Roche Holding AG (ROG)’s Avastin, Said by Merck KGaA (MRK).
According to data to be presented today at a cancer conference in Amsterdam, it was observed that in a trial among 342 patients with disease of advanced colon cancer that they are lacking certain genetic mutations, has a 33.1 median months survival those receiving Erbitux had as compared to 25.6 months for those treated with Avastin, Both drugs are made up with chemotherapy.
A sub-group of patients with so-called RAS wild-type tumors, the drug Erbitux is tested and in finding it was revealed that drug missed its main goal of shrinking tumors more than Avastin, Said by Merck. Merck who is basically based in Darmstadt, Germany, is planning to examine the results of two other trials which give the same sort of findings. And he is trying to seek regulatory approval in Europe for the drug.
In a telephone interview, Oliver Kisker, head of clinical development at Merck’s Serono unit, said that our first priority is to get the right treatment to the right patients. He said that Seven-point-five months extend in life is very impressive and very interesting.
Erbitux generated sales of ($1.2 billion) 887 million Euros for Merck. The German based Company sells the drugs outside North America. New York based company Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE:BMY), and Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE:LLY) an Indianapolis-based are the partners for the drug in the U.S.
One thing is to remember for patients that Germany’s Merck isn’t confused with U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co. which is based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.