Roche announced late Friday that it is suspending enrollment in a mid-stage study of CERA, an experimental therapy for anemic lung cancer, after a data monitoring committee noted a high death rate in three treatment arms involving CERA and one involving Aranesp. Roche said that the deaths were not the result of the EPO drugs involved in the study, but analysts were quick to say that the data cast a dark shadow over those drugs. One analyst noted that physicians may soon become reluctant to use EPO drugs for cancer. An expert committee of the FDA is scheduled to consider the risks involved with EPO therapies at an upcoming meeting.
- check out the press release
- read the UPI report on Roche