The press is terrible
ImClone: Erbitux Study Meets Endpoint
Wednesday January 10, 7:41 am ET
ImClone: Study Shows Erbitux Plus Chemo Effective As 1st-Line Colorectal Cancer Treatment
NEW YORK (AP) -- Biotech drug maker ImClone Systems Inc. and drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said Wednesday data from a late-stage study showed adding Erbitux to a standard chemotherapy regimen significantly increased the survival of advanced colorectal cancer patients when compared with chemo alone.
More than 1,000 patients with previously untreated colorectal cancer that had spread to other parts of the body participated in the Phase III study. The companies said the study met its primary endpoint of increasing survival rates in patients who were given Erbitux and Folfiri, a chemotherapy combination of irinotecan, leucovorin and fluorouracil, compared with patients given Folfiri alone.
German drug maker Merck KGaA, the distributor of Erbitux outside North America, conducted the study. Bristol-Myers is ImClone's North American Erbitux partner.
Results of the study will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in June.
Erbitux is currently approved in the U.S. for colorectal cancer patients who are not responding to first-line therapy, and for head and neck cancer patients.
