TAXOL REVEALS FURTHER POTENTIAL

25 October 1993

Bristol-Myers Squibb's Taxol (paclitaxel), the first of the new generation of taxoid anticancer products to reach the market, is now available in ten countries for its first indication, second-line therapy for advanced, metastatic ovarian cancer. The product may prove effective, however, in a number of other cancers and as a first-line therapy, and data on these and other issues were presented at a recent B-MS-sponsored meeting held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Bristol-Myers Squibb claims to have overcome the supply limitations with Taxol, which is derived from the relatively uncommon Pacific Yew tree, and now has sufficient reserves to investigate the drug's potential in a number of different indications. A spokeswoman for the company said that a semi-synthetic version of paclitaxel was on target for launch in the USA next year.

Paclitaxel has already been shown to achieve around a 22% response rate in advanced ovarian cancer patients who do not respond to or cannot tolerate first-line chemotherapeutic regimens. The hope is that using the drug first-line may increase the response rate achieved with existing regimens (mainly cisplatin and cyclophosphamide), and so have beneficial effects on patient survival.

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