Pfizer's Sutent is the key player in new targeted therapy era for kidney cancer

It has been a good month for Pfizer's oral cancer drug Sutent (sunitinib malate). Following a successful result in a Phase III trial  for pancreatic islet cell cancer (Marketletter March 23), it has had the  benefit of being endorsed by both the UK's National Institute for Health  and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the European Association of Urology  as a first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitor of choice in metastatic renal  cell cancer patients of good or intermediate risk.

Urologists and oncologists now consider the multi-targeting agent for  treatment of advanced kidney cancer to be a reference standard-of-care  against which all new drugs in development for mRCC must be compared,  including Pfizer's own late-stage developmental product axitinib.

In all, there are over 160 new drugs of different types in development  for renal cancer including 10 in late-stage testing. Sutent had  worldwide sales of $847.0 million last year, up 46% on the previous  year, and for the past six months has outsold all other medicines for  first-line treatment of mRCC, says Pfizer.