Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc fka ARIA

[DonShimoda]

LDK378 appears to be about six months ahead of AP113 but I guess the $2 billion question is which one will ultimately be the better drug. I went back and looked at the asco data and found that in the 26/33 pts who failed crizotinib and received >400mg dose, LDK378 had an 81% response rate. However, the overall response rate for all 33 pts who received >400mg dose was only 67% which means that in nsclc pts who had not received crizotinb (and therefore i would assume did not express ALK), the LDK378 response rate was less than 15%. Perhaps AP113' dual alk/egfr inhibitors will offer an advantage in overall response as well as durability given that such a high percentage of pts develop the T790 mutation against which LDK378 would presumably have little effect.