Shares of Pfizer Inc., with research operations in New London, are in focus Monday after the drugmaker’s experimental treatment for lung cancer patients with a certain gene showed extraordinary promise in early testing, The Associated Press reports.
The drug, crizotinib, (crih-ZAH-tin-ib) targets a gene that promotes tumor growth and is found in about 4 percent of lung cancers, especially among younger, nonsmokers. Nearly 220,000 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States alone, and it is the world’s top cancer killer.
Researchers reported Saturday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference in Chicago that more than 90 percent of the 82 patients in a study saw their tumors shrink after two months on the drug. Doctors had expected only about 10 percent of these very sick patients to respond to the drug, according to one of the study’s leaders, Dr. Yung-Jue Bang of the Seoul National University College of Medicine in South Korea.
Pfizer shares were up a penny to $14.76 a share in early trading Monday.
Pfizer sponsored the study and has already launched bigger trials to compare crizotinib to current standard treatments. The company hopes to seek federal Food and Drug Administration approval for the drug next year.
Two other gene-targeted treatments, Tarceva and Iressa, help about 20,000 lung cancer patients annually in the U.S. Tarceva is marketed through a partnership between OSI Pharmaceuticals and Roche’s Genentech unit. Iressa is made by AstraZeneca PLC.
