Celgene's Vidaza extends OS in MDS patients

US drugmaker Celgene presented data at the 14th Congress of the European Society of Hematology in Berlin, Germany, showing that Vidaza  (azacitidine) significantly extends overall survival and helps patients  with myelodysplastic syndromes become or remain red blood cell  transfusion independent.

"The presentations at EHA this year continue to support the clinical  benefit associated with Vidaza in MDS, including significantly extended  overall survival, and add to the data from the international AZA-001  survival study published in The Lancet Oncology earlier this year," said  Jean-Pierre Bizzari, senior vice president and head of  oncology/hematology at Celgene. He noted that the findings "reinforce  the significant and durable transfusion independence provided by Vidaza,  which is associated with improved overall survival in this  difficult-to-treat group of diseases."

A sub-analysis of the AZA-001 survival trial, comparing Vidaza against  conventional care regimens, found that, at two years, 50% of patients in  the Vidaza group were alive versus 16% of those in the CCR group  (p=0.0007). The median overall survival was 24.5 and 16.0 months in the  Vidaza and CCR groups, respectively, (p=0.004).