Pharma's Comeback

After spending several years in the shadows of biopharmaceutical companies, big drugmakers reclaimed the spotlight at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists, held last week in Atlanta.

Monoclonal antibodies, namely Genentech's Avastin and Herceptin and ImClone's Erbitux, have dominated discussions at ASCO in recent years. However, major drug companies are looking to stake their claim in the cancer arena by doing what they do best: taking a known target and adding their own twist to make a better drug.

"It was an ASCO of targeted small molecules," says Steven Stein, director of clinical development at GlaxoSmithKline's oncology medicine development center in describing the meeting. "Despite disappointments in recent years???probably chief among them is Iressa's failure to deliver results in lung cancer???we are now seeing a host of effective small-molecule agents in cancer."

Attendees report that the most exciting results shown at the meeting came from studies of multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors, small molecules that act on multiple receptors. GSK researchers, for example, unveiled data showing that adding the firm's oral kinase inhibitor Tykerb to standard capecitabine treatment nearly doubled the time it took for disease to worsen in breast cancer patients for whom other anticancer drugs had already failed. Tykerb acts on both the HER2 receptor—the anticancer drug Herceptin's target—and the epidermal growth factor receptor.

Pfizer scientists released data from several late-stage studies that could support broader use of the company's multikinase inhibitor Sutent, approved by FDA in January to treat kidney and stomach cancers. In a Phase II trial to treat patients with advanced lung cancer, Sutent halted tumor growth in roughly 40% of patients and caused tumors to shrink in 10% of patients.