Breast cancer drug dev't hampered by lack of patients

Although there are a plethora of targeted agents in the drug development pipeline, identifying available breast cancer patients on whom to test the new agents is a problem, according to the new Pharmacor report entitled Breast Cancer from Decision Resources.

Global drug behemoth Pfizer's Sutent (sunitinib) - which is still in clinical trials - could knock Roche/Chugai/Genentech's Avastin (bevacizumab) out of the breast cancer drug market, the report says. Sutent, a small-molecule VEGF inhibitor, is identified as having great promise with sales forecast to be in excess of $1.5 billion in 2016, and will help Pfizer become a major player in the oncology drug market," the report argues.

"Sutent, an approved agent for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma, is currently under investigation in several Phase III trails in breast cancer, and will be launched into the breast cancer market place in 2009," said Joanne Graham, director at Decision Resources. "We forecast impressive sales for this multi-targeted agent and thought leaders report enormous enthusiasm and huge potential for this oral drug," she added.