Onyx shares tumble after Nexavar failure

The Motley Fool has been counting the casualties since Onyx and Bayer halted their trial for Nexavar as a therapy for non-small cell lung cancer. Onyx's stock has shed 31 percent of its value since Monday, with more losses yesterday. Nexavar has now proven itself for liver and kidney cancers with disappointing results for skin and lung cancer, taking some of the luster off of the prospects of the one-time wonder drug. There are still distinct possibilities for the therapy in lung cancer, though. A number of analysts have noted that Nexavar appears to be particularly unsuccessful in cases involving squamous cell cancer and future trials could exclude that group. Meanwhile, companies like OSI and AstraZeneca, which sell therapies for lung cancer, are being benefited by the latest news on Nexavar.

- read the report from MSNBC
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and here's the report from Thomson Financial