Pfizer has discontinued another trial of its monoclonal antibody figitumumab. The drug was in a Phase III trial in combination with Tarceva as a second/third-line treatment for patients with previously treated advanced non-adenocarcinoma non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). An independent data safety monitoring committee recommended that Pfizer stop the study after it became apparent that figitumumab was unlikely to prove superior to Tarceva in the study population.
Last year, Pfizer shuttered a late-stage trial of the drug in lung cancer after after an analysis by the DSMC showed that addition of figitumumab to carboplatin plus paclitaxel would be unlikely to meet the primary endpoint of improved overall survival compared to paclitaxel plus carboplatin alone. Pfizer is continuing to study figitumumab to treat prostate, breast and lung cancers, as well as Ewing's sarcoma.
"This outcome is disappointing to us and to patients with NSCLC. Pfizer is working to thoroughly analyze all available data from the figitumumab program to better understand the compound and the IGF-1R (insulin growth factor-1 receptor) pathway," says Mace Rothenberg, senior vice president of clinical development and medical affairs for Pfizer's Oncology Business Unit, in a statement.
- here's Pfizer's release
PLUS: Pfizer also announced today that two Phase III studies of Sutent (sunitinib malate) in advanced breast cancer did not meet their primary endpoints. Report