Merck KGaA's oncology pipeline presented.(Brief Article)

2002 JUL 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New data on drugs in Merck KGaA's oncology pipeline were presented in seven separate abstracts at the 38th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Orlando.

The abstracts described different steps in the development of various investigational drugs within Merck KGaA's strategic concept of targeted cancer treatments. Merck KGaA is developing four strategic areas of targeted cancer treatments - monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic cancer vaccines, immunocytokines, and angiogenesis inhibitors.

Among the seven abstracts presented at ASCO, two focused on the monoclonal antibody cetuximab (Erbitux/C225), the most advanced product in Merck's extensive oncology pipeline.

Cetuximab is an investigational monoclonal antibody designed to target and block the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is expressed on the surface of certain cancer cells. Cetuximab is currently being investigated for the treatment of head and neck and colorectal cancers as the main indications. Other studies are being conducted in non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. The abstracts presented at ASCO continue to demonstrate the clinical benefits of cetuximab in a number of tumor types expressing EGFR.

Dr. Jose Baselga and a group of researchers from several European countries presented data about cetuximab in combination with cisplatin or carboplatin in 75 patients with recurrent/metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck failing treatment with cisplatin or carboplatin (oral presentation, #900). The addition of cetuximab to the previously ineffective chemotherapies resulted in an overall response rate of 10.7%. An additional 36% of patients showed stabilization of disease for more than 6 weeks. The overall rate of disease control (partial response plus stable disease) is 46.7%.

"The response rate is not unexpected and it represents a clinical benefit when you consider the extremely poor prognosis for patients with advanced metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck being heavily pretreated with radio- and chemotherapy. The high number of patients with stabilization of disease (36%) after demonstrating a ...