Novartis and Schering said their highly touted colorectal cancer drug, PTK/ZK, fell short in a second round of clinical trials by failing to show an overall survival benefit. The companies are now rethinking their plans to seek regulatory approval for the drug. The drug, one of a new class designed to starve tumors of the blood they need to grow, had been hailed as a potential rival to Roche and Genentech's Avastin, a big sales success, and Erbitux, a drug from ImClone and Merck that helped boost ImClone's second quarter results.
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