Big Pharma expected to dominate key cancer meeting

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Big Pharma expected to dominate key cancer meeting

By Deena Beasley

REUTERS

10:54 a.m. June 1, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Biotechnology may have blazed the trail, but big pharma is

fast advancing in the competition to develop innovative cancer

treatments.

Companies like Genentech Inc., long seen at the cutting edge of cancer

research, are expected to take a backseat to the mainline pharmaceutical

industry at an annual meeting of oncologists starting this weekend.

" Biotech had the field to itself for a while, but now there are players

of all sizes, " said Geoffrey Porges, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein.

Last year, Genentech's Avastin - the first cancer drug designed to work

by cutting off blood supply to tumors - dominated the meeting of the

American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

This year, big pharmaceutical companies like Wyeth, Pfizer Inc., and

GlaxoKline Plc, will be announcing pivotal-stage trial data for

their own targeted cancer drugs, which are gentler on patients than

chemotherapy, which can cause severe nausea and other harsh side

effects.

Facing looming generic competition for some of their most profitable

products, drugmakers like Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb have been

penalized by investors for not doing enough to develop new medicines.

As a result, many licensed, acquired or developed novel drugs for

diseases like cancer, the No. 2 killer in the United States after heart

disease.

" Big pharma realizes that this is an important area. Some are investing

more than they have before, " said Dr. Schenkein, Genentech's vice

president of clinical oncology and hematology.

He noted that Genentech will have 200 abstracts at the meeting this

year, " clearly a strong leadership position. "

Most of that research will be " incremental " or involve combinations of

therapies, he said.

Schenkein attributed the shift to an increase in cancer cases as the

population ages and people live longer as well as advances in biology

that are opening new treatment pathways.

" All in, we believe this year's ASCO is shaping up to highlight large

pharma's competitive threat to biotech in addition to the ever-present

biotech/biotech competition, " Baird & Co. analyst

said in a report.

Other biotech companies, including Amgen Inc., the world's largest, are

expected to unveil important cancer research at the meeting, but most of

the late-stage presentations will come from traditional pharmaceutical

companies.

Glaxo is expected to present data on its experimental pill Tykerb in

breast and kidney cancer, while Pfizer will unveil trial results for

Sutent in kidney and stomach cancer. Wyeth is slated to report results

for kidney cancer drug temsirolimus and Novartis AG will present interim

colon cancer results for its drug known as PTK787.

Also at the ASCO meeting in Atlanta, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration

advisory panel will review Bristol-Myers Squibb's application for

experimental leukemia drug Sprycel.

Big pharma's interest in cancer comes about five years after Novartis'

launch of the targeted leukemia drug Gleevec.

Gleevec was initially expected to be a niche product, but its

effectiveness and benign side-effect profile led to sales last year of

$2.2 billion.

Cancer drugs are now the fastest-growing section of the pharmaceutical

market and are perceived to be relatively immune from the cost pressures

that increasingly weigh on the U.S. health-care system.

" Oncology has become a long-term market as more people are living with

the disease, " said Mark Monane, an analyst at Needham & Co.

" In old movies they used to call it 'the big C.' The name cancer was

unmentionable. Now, with all the new therapies, I don't think we are

curing people, but we are caring for them, " Monane said.