Pharmalot... Pharmalittle... Good Morning

Top of the morning to you. Another busy start to the day here at the Pharmalot corporate campus, where we are scampering to deliver the short people to their schoolhouses for some learning. As always, we fortify ourselves with a blessed cup of stimulation, especially since we have a long to-do list to attack. We trust you relate. So no time to waste. Here are a few interesting items to get you started. Have a great day and stay in touch...

FTC Places Conditions On Watson Purchase Of Actavis (ProPharm)

CVS Caremark To Pay $5M To Settle False Pricing Charges (Washington Post)

Lilly Drug Boosts Survival In Gastric Cancer (Pharma Times)

More Drugs May Be Linked To Meningitis Outbreak (Reuters)

J&J To Restore Full Access To Doxil Cancer Drug (Dow Jones)

Novartis' Diovan Still Has 69 Percent Market Share (Bloomberg News)

Cinven Expands Pharma Holdings With Amdipharm Purchase (Pharma Times)

Roche Still Wants To Expand In Gene Sequencing (Bloomberg News)

Peru Drug Approvals May Be Delayed (InPharma Technologist)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Please check this post for updates

2 Comments

In regards to Lilly Drug Boosts Survival In Gastric Cancer, this should be interesting. Thanks for this Ed.

Anti-cancer treatments often effectively shrink the size of tumors, but some might have an opposite effect, actually expanding the small population of "cancer stem cells" believed to drive cancer. Some treatments could be producing more "cancer stem cells" that then are capable of metastasizing, because these cells are trying to find a way to survive the therapy. This may help explain why the expression of stem cell markers has been associated with resistance to chemotherapy and poor outcome.

Some years ago, researchers had debated the notion that some therapies are not capable of eradicating cancer because they do not target the cancer stem cells responsible for tumor development. To test this hypothesis, they set out to measure both stem cell markers and tumor volume before and after treatment in a mouse model.

The "mab" drugs are monoclonal antibodies that target specific markers on cancer stem cells. Inhibition of tumor growth by reducing cancer stem cell frequency while promoting apoptosis (cell death) in tumor cells when administered alone or in combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy. However, in cell function analysis, they work much better in combination with other cytotoxic chemotherapy (like paclitaxel) and not with other "targeted" drugs.

I wonder if Lilly's monoclonal antibody drug is trying to accomplish this? VEGF may have a role in "cancer stem cells." There is no mention of this in the article. Or, are they just going after the VEGF receptor 2? Gastric tumors are associated with increased concentrations of VEGF.

The drug Aflibercept is a fusion protein that includes parts of VEGF receptor 1 and VEGF receptor 2, and is similar to Avastin in that one of its major functions is to "soak up" VEGF. However, the spectrum of ligands and mechanisms by which it works is very different than Avastin, which binds only to VEGF receptor 1.

Oct 16, 2012 - 2:16pm
Greg, the information I received this morning states that ramucirumab is a fully-human IgG1 MOAB receptor antagonist designed to target VEGF receptor-2. The REGARD study was post first-line tx w/5FU- or platinum-containing tx and ramucirumab as a single agent for second-line therapy. There are 6 more phase III studies going on for breast, colorectal, gastric, hepatocellular & lung cancer as well as a study with paclitaxel for metastatic gastric cancer which completed enrollment last month. Sounds like Lilly might have hit it big with its purchase of ImClone.