Better News For TLC With Doxorubicin Drug

After the disappointment in the Phase III trial of its Ventus product(Marketletter July 14), The Liposome Company has reported encouraging data from an interim analysis of its Phase III studies of TLC D-99, its liposomal formulation of doxorubicin.

The company is conducting two Phase III trials of the drug in the USA and a third in Europe, all looking at the safety and efficacy of the drug in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Interim data from the first US study, a single-agent study comparing TLC D-99 to conventional doxorubicin, found a twofold reduction in the primary endpoint of cardiotoxicity and equivalent efficacy.

Rights Reacquired From Pfizer Meantime, TLC has reacquired full rights to the product from Pfizer, a move which the company says it has been eager to make for a long time. TLC will assume full control (including the clinical development of the drug after a transitional period), and Pfizer's involvement will recede to providing a line of credit and a royalty interest.