Posts tagged ‘Zytiga’
The prostate cancer market is dynamic, with a lot of news happening. One of the many new treatments in development worth watching is custirsen (OGX-011).
Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog recently wrote about Custirsen from OncoGeneX. This drug inhibits the production of clusterin, a protein associated with the development of treatment resistance. As Sally notes it is in essence a “chemo enhancer.”
Photo: OncoGeneX
Phase 3 trials with custirsen are currently underway in castrate resistant prostate cancer patients receiving docetaxel in the first and second line setting.
The potential to improve the efficacy of docetaxel may be of commercial interest as more generic versions become available. According to IMS Health, sales of generic and branded docetaxel were approximately $1.1 billion for the year from June 2010 to June 2011.
This week Sandoz entered the market with their announcement of the FDA approval and launch of their generic version of Taxotere®.
It will be interesting to see whether use of custirsen with docetaxel increases overall survival (OS) in the phase III CRPC trials, and if it does how this compares to other recently approved CRPC treatments such as Zytiga™ (abiraterone acetate).
As Sally noted in her video blog post from the annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA), there is also preliminary scientific data to suggest that custirsen may improve the efficacy of androgen receptor antagonists such as MDV3100 from Medivation/Astellas.
We expect there will be new data on prostate cancer new products in development at the ESMO/ECCO European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress in Stockholm in late September. The possibility of new treatment options is good news for prostate cancer patients. It is a market definitely worth watching.
Do you have a need to understand the fast moving prostate cancer market and its competitive dynamics? If so, please contact us as we offer a number of services in support of prostate cancer marketing and new products. The team at Icarus Consultants has in-depth knowledge of this therapeutic area.
Last week, Pieter Droppert wrote on Biotech Strategy Blog about what the impact of the European approval for abiraterone acetate (Zytiga®) may be on cabazitaxel (Jevtana®) sales.
Both are indicated in the post-docetaxel setting. Will physicians prescribe a convenient pill (abiraterone) as opposed to using another line of chemo (cabazitaxel)? You can read Pieter’s thoughts on Biotech Strategy Blog.
Meanwhile on Pharma Strategy Blog, Sally Church wrote an update on pharma social media. She reviewed the Zytiga healthcare professionals website and the many features that she liked.
In another post last week, Sally discussed some of the issues surrounding the drop in share price for Dendreon and possible reasons for poor sipuleucel-T (Provenge®) sales. She also discussed new research that shows the TMPRSS2:ERG gene may be a more useful marker than PSA in prostate cancer. You can read more on Pharma Strategy Blog.
Want to understand the prostate cancer market? Contact us.
Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog has published a video blog (vlog) post on what’s hot in Prostate Cancer at the 2011 AUA (American Urological Association) annual meeting in Washington DC.
In her post, Sally reviews presentations by Charles Sawyers and Oliver Sartor. She discusses new prostate cancer products in development such as MDV3100 and custirsen (OGX-011), and how our understanding of basic biology may lead to new combinations in the future.
If you missed Sally’s video blog post, then you can watch it on Vimeo below. As Sally would say, “check it out!”
This Friday sees the start of the 2011 annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) in Washington, DC. The meeting runs from May 14-19.
We expect the recent FDA approval of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga®) from Ortho Biotech (JNJ) to be hot news at the meeting as urologists seek to learn more about it’s use.
Icarus Consultants will be in our Nation’s Capital for AUA, so should you be interested in meeting up, please contact us.
Sally Church’s interview with Dr Charles Sawyers rated a “must read” by Forbes Health
May 5th, 2011
Daedalus
Sally Church invests a lot of her personal time in writing for Pharma Strategy Blog. With a focus on the science of new products and treatments in cancer and hematology, Sally willingly shares her passion, knowledge and expertise.
It is always a pleasure to receive endorsement from others. Matthew Herper from Forbes Health kindly highlighted Sally’s interview with Dr Charles Sawyers as a “must read.”
We agree. Dr Sawyers is one of the leading translational scientists in the United States who along with Dr Brian Druker and Dr Nick Lydon received the prestigious Lasker award for their work on imatinib (Gleevec/Glivec) in CML. Dr Sawyers is now working on prostate cancer, and in his interview with Sally, describes his latest work developing MDV3100 and ARN-509.
We unequivocally recommend reading Sally’s post on Pharma Strategy Blog, “Making a difference to the lives of cancer patients: An interview with Dr Charles Sawyers.”
Zytiga (abiraterone acetate) price will impact the Prostate Cancer market following FDA approval
April 29th, 2011
Daedalus
Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog has written about the FDA approval yesterday of Ortho Biotech’s ($JNJ) abiraterone acetate, brand name Zytiga for the treatment of castration resistant prostate cancer in patients who have received prior chemotherapy with docetaxel.
The final data showed a 4.6 month increase in overall survival (OS) in these very sick patients in late stage disease. It is to be expected that the response will be significantly better in patients treated earlier.
As Sally states in her post, “it is good to see new treatment options emerge for the treatment of castrate resistant prostate cancer.”
Abiraterone treatment has been priced competitively by JNJ, with a treatment price of around $40K ($5,000 per month for a median treatment cycle of 8 months). As Sally notes “this is very fair.”
The commercial impact for sanofi-aventis is likely to be huge. It’s hard not to see elderly or frail patients preferring 4 pills a day compared to chemotherapy with a side-effect profile that is far from optimal. The price of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) is lower than cabazitaxel (Jevtana), which was approved early last year. The market opportunity for Jevtana looks less promising now that it has competition.
Sally, in her insightful post on Pharma Strategy Blog, also notes a possible impact on sipuleucel-T (Provenge) from Dendreon, which is $93K for three infusions. It’s hard not to see some off-label usage from urologists given that phase III trials for use of abiraterone in the pre-chemotherapy setting are already enrolled.
The prostate cancer market is currently a very dynamic and competitive one. With more new drugs on the horizon that may potentially be improvements on abiraterone acetate e.g. MDV3100 and ARN-509, it’s an exciting market to watch.
Sally Church has a number of posts on Pharma Strategy Blog that discuss the science and pharma marketing strategy for prostate cancer new products.
As marketing strategy consultants, it’s fascinating to watch the dynamics of a pharmaceutical market in rapid evolution.
With three new therapies for prostate cancer approved last year (cabazitaxel, denosumab, sipuleucel-T) and the approval of abiraterone acetate expected this month, the prostate cancer market is a fast changing one.
This is really good news for patients, and for a disease that effects 1 in 6 men in the United States, and is the most common non-skin cancer.
Pieter Droppert on Biotech Strategy Blog has some commentary from the recent annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) on additional new products in development that may change the landscape of this disease further.
You can read more about this on Biotech Strategy Blog.
Sally Church, PhD our oncology new products expert, is passionate about making a difference to the lives of patients with cancer. She channels her many talents and energies into helping pharma and biotech companies assess the best targets for their new products. It’s a job that requires science, marketing strategy and commercial awareness; a unique blend of skills.
Sally’s recent post on Pharma Strategy Blog entitled “Accelerated approval and cancer drugs” considers how best to bring new cancer drugs to market? Should promising oncology new products go from phase 2 clinical trials to market without the need for a large and expensive phase 3 registration study? If so, what happens when the data doesn’t pan out as happened with Roche/Genentech’s bevacizumab (Avastin) in breast cancer?
You can read more about Sally’s thoughts on Pharma Strategy Blog.