This Year's Cancer Debutantes
Matthew Herper, 05.11.05, 6:00 AM ET


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< script language=JavaScript src="http://www.forbes.com/scripts/popit.js">< /script><!--CUSTOM BOX drugwatch_asco-->NEW YORK - On Friday, more than 25,000 doctors, nurses, patient advocates and drug company employees will converge on Orlando, Fla., for the year's biggest cancer conference, the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO. All eyes in the pharmaceutical industry will be watching as participants present research that could boost the sales of current medicines and introduce the next generation of cancer blockbusters.

Click here for a slide show of ASCO drugs to watch.

Cancer drugs are big business, bringing in $24 billion annually worldwide, according to drug data firm IMS Health. That makes them the third best-selling class of drugs, after cholesterol-lowering agents and ulcer meds. Profit margins for cancer drugs are among the highest in the industry because they only have to be marketed to a small number of doctors, even as prices for newer agents eclipse $20,000 per patient.

But there is no argument that anti-cancer research has been a boon for patients. This year in the United States, approximately 1.4 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed and 570,000 people will lose their lives to some form of the disease. Some 30% of those deaths will be traceable to tobacco use.

During their lifetime, one in three women and every second man will be diagnosed with some type of cancer. Thanks to new medicines, the prognosis is improving somewhat. Some 64% of cancer patients survive for at least five years, and the National Cancer Institute estimates that there are 9.8 million cancer survivors in the U.S. today.

We already know that a few winners are going to be presented at this year's ASCO. The biggest corporate presence will be Genentech (nyse: DNA - news - people ), the South San Francisco biotech that has built itself into a cancer-fighting giant. Genentech has already revealed that in separate studies, its Avastin delayed the progress of both lung and breast cancer. The full data from both of those studies will be presented at ASCO, as will another study showing that the company's Herceptin prevents breast cancer tumors with certain genetic defects from returning after surgery.

Traditional behemoths such as Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ) and Novartis (nyse: NVS - news - people ) may also present new data--both good and bad--on cancer-fighting pills they are developing. Aside from new targeted genetic medicines, there could be some new data on the effectiveness of old-fashioned chemotherapies such as Taxotere and Eloxatin, both of which are sold by Sanofi-Aventis (nyse: SNY - news - people ).

For small biotechs such as Ariad Pharmaceuticals (nasdaq: ARIA - news - people ), Medarex (nasdaq: MEDX - news - people ) and GTx (nasdaq: GTXI - news - people ), even small presentations at ASCO can be make-or-break moments.

But investors should tread carefully, as good news has often leaked before the meeting even begins. Typically, biotech stocks run up before the meeting, and sometimes sell off even when the news is good. Still, for long-term investors, ASCO is often the time to get a feel for what the big cancer stories will be in the coming year.

Click here for a slide show of ASCO drugs to watch.

Cancer Drugs On The Way, But Who Pays?
Matthew Herper, 05.13.05, 4:05 PM ET

ORLANDO, FLA. - This year's annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology unveils new data on an unprecedented number of drugs targeted at the genetic quirks that cause cancer.

Some of these drugs will not help patients. But those that will help could lead to another problem: Their high cost could create an even bigger crisis for the U.S. health care system. Consider that treating one patient with one drug can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars.

"Totaling up how many dollars are involved here is quite staggering," says Leonard Saltz, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who conducted trials on many big-name cancer drugs. "The fact is these are extraordinarily expensive therapies that lead to real but modest improvements, and we as a society are going to confront the cost and how to pay for it."

Drug companies, meanwhile, are racing to develop new targeted drugs that will further increase costs while prolonging the lives of cancer patients a little bit at a time.

The big winner this year may be Genentech (nyse: DNA - news - people ). Geoffrey Porges at Sanford C. Bernstein writes in a note to investors that the drug company has more presentations at ASCO this year than the rest of the biotech industry combined. The most important presentation shows studies that its Avastin drug works against certain lung and breast tumors and that Herceptin, a breast cancer drug, is effective in preventing tumors from returning. The lung cancer data are being presented Friday at a press briefing.

But big pharmaceutical firms aren't content to let Genentech have the huge market for new cancer drugs to itself. One major challenger is Novartis (nyse: NVS - news - people ). The company jump-started the field of gene-targeted cancer pills with Gleevec, which showed stunning successes in certain forms of leukemia and stomach cancers. The drug giant has been hoping to repeat that success with PTK-787, a pill meant to work in the same way as Genentech's Avastin. But initial results being presented at a press briefing at ASCO did not reach statistical significance in preventing colon cancer from progressing.

Novartis and partner Schering (nyse: SHR - news - people ) are still hopeful the drug will eventually prove effective.

"The development of oncology products is not often a straight line," says David Epstein, head of oncology at Novartis. "I'm still relatively optimistic about PTK."

One strategy that could goose sales and save lives is to use medicines not only to rid the body of cancer, but also to prevent it from ever coming back. But this means patients can wind up taking drugs for years.

At Friday's press briefing, data are being presented from a five-year, 8,000-patient study of Novartis' pill Femara, which is used to keep breast cancer from recurring after chemotherapy and surgery. Patients who took Femara for five years had 19% fewer breast cancer recurrences than those who took Tamoxifen, the current gold standard. All of the drugs work by affecting estrogen, which can help some breast tumors grow.

Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ) and AstraZeneca (nyse: AZN - news - people ) sell similar drugs, but Matthew Ellis, director of medical oncology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, argues that the medicines are different and that Femara may be the most potent, biochemically. The stage seems set for a marketing war between the three firms. Once a relatively small seller, Femara now has blockbuster potential despite its high price tag. The drug costs $224 per month, compared to $38 for generic Tamoxifen.

Data are also being made available on the infamous drug thalidomide, sold by Celgene (nasdaq: CELG - news - people ) as Thalomid. Though the drug was linked to birth defects in the 1950s, it has found a place as a powerful treatment for the blood cancer multiple myeloma. In a trial, 668 patients were given chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant to replace their bone marrow. Half were also given Thalomid. After five years, 55% of patients on Thalomid had no cancer recurrence, compared to 40% of those who did not get the drug.

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Nur ohne Beachtung und Auszeichnung! Ohne Sterne!

Der einzige den ich unter Celgene fand! CELG

Aktiensplit-Ankündigung

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Die genauen Daten konnte ich noch nicht ermitteln.

Grüße

 ich habe schon gelesen, das hier ein hauen und stechen ist. Schade.

lieben gruß

Madame Eugenie