Avastin results cast cloud over anticancer class. (News).(Brief Article)

Chemical Market Reporter, September, 2002

THE GLOOMY results of Phase III trials for Genentech Inc.'s cancer drug Avastin (bevacizumab, rhuMAb-VEGF) sent shock waves across the market for a new class of anticancer drugs last week. While analysts maintain earnings per share forecasts, targeting mid-2003 Phase III data in colorectal cancer to salvage the drug, shares of Genentech fell $3.11 to $28.89 on news of the tests last Tuesday.

Genentech reports that a Phase III study of Avastin, an antibody directed at vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in relapsed metastatic breast cancer, failed its primary end point of progression-free survival, despite attaining response rate. Anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapy refractory patients received Avastin with Roche Holding AG's Xeloda...

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