Zhang's comment regarding a poorly designed Telcyta trial was really a funny one, in my view.
Zhang used Hycamtin / Doxil data from patients who have received 1 prior therapy, and compared it to the Telcyta data from patients who had received 3 prior therapies. His conclusion: Telcyta shows similar efficacy to Hycamtin / Doxil.
Problem there is that the comparison is not valid. It disregards the stage of disease that Telcyta's ovarian trial is treating.
After making his case that Telcyta efficacy was no different than Hycamtin / Doxil, Zhang turns around and suggests that Telik should not have designed a superiority trial, but rather a non-inferiority one (this is his trial design flaw argument). Problem is that non-inferiority trials are probably the worst types of trails for a small, unprofitable biotech to get involved in. Made me think that Zhang is either knowingly painting an unreasonable picture for Telik, or that he's very out of touch with the biotech sector.
I have the prudential report if you want to look at it. Drop me an email at poorgradstudent@yahoo.com.
