CHICAGO - Looking back at the weekend data from the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, it's clear the big winner is Onyx Pharmaceuticals(ONXX Quote) and its partner Bayer.
The 2.8-month survival benefit for their Nexavar drug in liver cancer (a 44% reduction in the risk of death) establishes the drug as the new standard of care. (For my full take on this news, click here). What about Pfizer's(PFE Quote) cancer drug Sutent? It's been able to beat out Nexvar in kidney cancer, so will it do the same in liver cancer?
It's too early to say, but Sutent doesn't look like much, based on data reported Saturday from phase II study with 37 kidney cancer patients. Sutent was dosed at 50 mg and the toxicities and side effects were pretty darn high. Four patients developed "grade 5 events," which means drug-related toxicities that led to death. The cause of one of these patient deaths was listed, strangely, as "drowsiness."
The linescore here is simple: Bad toxicity, low efficacy for Sutent in liver cancer equals good news for Onyx, Bayer and Nexavar. ...
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