In a late-stage disappointment, Bayer and partner Onyx Pharmaceuticals have announced that their skin cancer drug Nexavar did not meet the primary endpoint of progression-free survival. Nexavar, which has received both Fast Track and Orphan Drug Status, was approved last year as a therapy for advanced renal-cell carcinoma. Previously, Bayer and Onyx also announced that a late-stage trial of Nexavar for kidney cancer failed to demonstrate increased survival rates. It is still being tested for the treatment of liver and lung cancer.
"This trial does not change our commitment to, and belief in, Nexavar. We hope to demonstrate utility in a wide variety of tumors and we will continue to broaden our clinical program, including increasing our attention to the more common malignancies in which anti-angiogenics have demonstrated activity," said Hollings C. Renton, Onyx's chairman, president, and CEO.
- see the press release on the trial results