ImClone shares dive after Erbitux fails a Phase III

ImClone stock dived 8 percent this morning when researchers announced that a late-stage trial of Erbitux as a first-line therapy for advanced lung cancer flunked its primary endpoint of progression-free survival as assessed by an independent radiology review committee. Researchers, though, put the best spin on the data that they could, noting that secondary endpoints--including response rate--"were statistically significant and favored the Erbitux-containing arm."

"We consider lung cancer to be a high priority and await the results of other Phase II and Phase III evaluations of ERBITUX in the first- and second- line setting with chemotherapy regimens," said ImClone medical chief Eric K. Rowinsky.

- for more on the data, see the release
- read TheStreet.com report on ImClone

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