Genentech's cancer disappointment
Although lauded at the recent American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference for its strong performance of its marketed products, Genentech remains under pressure to rejuvinate its pipeline, after poor results seen in two latter stage trials.
Although lauded at the recent American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference for its strong performance of its marketed products, Genentech remains under pressure to rejuvinate its pipeline, after poor results seen in two latter stage trials.
The company has released Phase II data indicating that its humanised monoclonal antibody (mAb) product Omnitarg had limited activity when used as a monotherapy to treat ovarian, breast and prostate cancers. The news is potentially damaging to the company's reputation for strong pipeline portfolio management and harnessed innovation.
Together with the recent failure of Genentech/Actelion's Phase III acute heart failure drug Veletri (tezosentan), it has left Genentech struggling to maintain pipeline innovation, and the company now has only one novel pipeline product set to launch by 2010, its ophthalmic treatment Lucentis (ranibizumab). This makes the company largely dependent on the lifecycle management of currently marketed products, meaning pipeline rejuvenation is an increasingly pressing need for the firm.
Omnitarg (pertuzumab) failed to show a significant benefit in a range of Phase II trials. Trial data indicated that the product demonstrated a partial response or the ability to stabilize the disease in 15% of ovarian cancer patients, 8% of patients with metastatic breast cancer with low expression of HER2, and 12% of prostate cancer patients.
Omnitarg is the first product in the HER dimerisation inhibitor class. Products in this class function by inhibiting HER2 receptor dimerisation with other HER receptor family members. Herceptin (trastuzumab), one of Roche/Genentech's leading marketed mAb products, generated close to $1.2bn in 2004 and it also targets the HER2 pathway. However, the product is only effective in patients with tumours that over-express HER2, while Omnitarg has been designed to target tumours that have normal levels of HER2, thereby expanding the target patient population. The failure of Omnitarg has therefore denied Genentech a potential key growth driver over the longer term.
In April 2005, Genentech overtook Amgen as the leading biotech company in terms of market capitalisation, largely on the back of strong clinical data for Avastin in breast and non-small cell lung cancer.