UK Launch Of SmithKline Beecham's Hycamtin

SmithKline Beecham has launched its anticancer drug Hycamtin (topotecanhydrochloride) in the UK, its second market, following European Union approval late last year (Marketletter November 25, 1996).

The first of a new class of drugs, Hycamtin is indicated for the second-line treatment of patients with metastatic ovarian cancer, and works by inhibiting the enzyme topoisomerase I during cell replication, resulting in the death of proliferating tumor cells, says the company.

In a Phase III comparison trial with 226 patients who had relapsed after less than six months of primary treatment for ovarian cancer, a "numerically higher" response rate (20.5% versus 13.2%), time to progression (18.9 vs 14.7 weeks) and survival (63 vs 52 weeks) was recorded in Hycamtin-treated patients compared to patients treated with Bristol-Myers Squibb's Taxol (paclitaxel). When drugs were switched in patients who had not responded to either drug, there was a 13% response rate to Hycamtin in Taxol non-responders and a 10% response rate to Taxol in Hycamtin non-responders.