After a series of issues on the
manufacturing front, it's good to see
Genzyme (Nasdaq: GENZ) get some good news for
a change.
This morning, the company announced positive results in
testing its cancer drug Campath in patients with chronic
lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The drug is already approved to
treat CLL as a monotherapy, but Genzyme is trying to expand
its label to include dual therapy with another of its CLL
drugs, Fludara. The latter drug faces generic competition
from
Teva Pharmaceutical (Nasdaq: TEVA) and
Hospira (NYSE: HSP), among others.
In the trial, patients taking Campath plus Fludara took a
longer time to see their cancers progress than the patients
who took only Fludara. Genzyme didn't give the full details
-- it's holding them for a scientific meeting -- but the
results were statistically significant. Furthermore, this was
actually an interim look at the data, so we may see a
substantial extension of the progression of the disease when
the final data comes out. The independent group looking at
the data even recommended early closure of the trial, which
might mean the improvement to progression-free survival (PFS)
is very good.
This add-on strategy is a popular one --
Onyx Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ONXX) and
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) have
usedit for Nexavar and Sutent, respectively. It should
also allow Genzyme to grab many of the doctors who prefer to
use Fludara on their patients. Depending on how much PFS a
combined Campath-Fludara treatment provides, Genzyme might
even be able to get patients who would have gone on other CLL
therapies, like
Cephalon 's (Nasdaq: CEPH) Treanda.
With the manufacturing issues wrapping up -- the company
expects to be caught up on Cerezyme and Fabrazyme shortages
in the first quarter of next year -- Genzyme can finally get
back to the
hypergrowthwe've seen in the past.
This article was originally published as
Genzyme's Good News. Finally!on
Fool.com
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