Amgen's pantiumumab sees strong Ph III data

USA-based biotechnology major Amgen saw encouraging Phase III results on its cancer drug panitumumab presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, held in Washington DC. The agent improves progression-free survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who had failed standard chemotherapy.

In the randomized trial of 463 patients, those who received panitumumab with best supportive care every two weeks showed a 46% decrease in the rate of tumor progression or death versus those who were given only best supportive care. At week 24, approximately four times as many pantimumab patients were alive and progression-free vs those on best-supportive care (18% vs 5%) and twice as many were alive and progression-free at week 32 (10% vs 4%).

Study investigators also reported that panitumumab, which is the first fully-human monoclonal antibody that targets the epidermal growth factor receptor, significantly improved disease control. In patients who responded, the median duration of response was 17 weeks. Extended follow-up also revealed that, even after 32 weeks, a larger percentage of patients in the panitumumab cohort with best supportive care group were alive without disease progression than in the group assigned to best supportive care alone.