Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Roche - Avastin: clinical trials, ain't they a bitch?

The drug Avastin failed to prevent colon cancer from recurring by a significant amount in a clinical trial, the drug’s manufacturer, Genentech, said early Wednesday.

The results of the trial had been closely watched because a success would have paved the way to a new use of the drug, potentially increasing sales by billions of dollars a year.

Now those efforts will be set back, and it appears that Roche, the pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, may have paid more than it needed to acquire Genentech in March. Roche shares fell 10 percent in early trading in Europe.

More at NYT

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