Pfizer strikes out in PhIII study for kidney cancer treatment

Pfizer ($PFE) missed the main goal of a late-stage study involving Torisel, one of the drug giant's approved drugs for kidney cancer. In the failed Phase III study, the Pfizer drug used in combination with Roche's ($RHHBY) Avastin fell short in comparison with Avastin and interferon-alfa-2a in patients with renal cell carcinoma. The company had hoped to prove that its combo was better than competitors in helping patients with the kidney cancer live longer without their condition worsening.

Kidney cancer has become one of the most crowded areas for oncology therapeutics, and Pfizer has embarked on studies such as this failed trial to differentiate the company's offerings. In January, the company won approval of its VEGF inhibitor known as Inlyta for patients with renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, adding that drug its other approved treatments for renal tumors, Sutent and Torisel.

Yet Pfizer wants to build the uses for its drugs as first lines of attacks against kidney cancer. Inlyta, for instance, gained FDA approval as a second-line therapy for patients who had already received one prior treatment. As Reuters reports, the combo of Avastin and interferon-alfa-2a already has approval as a first-line treatment, and Pfizer could have made a case for using Torisel rather than interferon-alfa-2a alongside Avastin for such patients if its late-stage study succeeded.  

"This trial advances our knowledge about the role and limitations of combining targeted therapies in the treatment of advanced RCC,"  Dr. Mace Rothenberg, senior vice president of clinical development and medical affairs for Pfizer's oncology unit, said in the company's release. "Additional analyses will be performed to help us understand this result."

- here's Pfizer's release
- see the Reuters article