As reported in Fierce Biotech, Sanofi's late stage breast cancer drug, iniparib, failed to meet its endpoints in a phase III trial of triple negative breast cancer patients. Sanofi had spent $500 M to acquire BiPar and its new PARP inhibitor drug and had hoped to apply it to difficult to treat triple-negative breast cancer patients. The drug failed to work.
This is bad news for Sanofi and its CEO Chris Viehbacher as iniparib had been projected to reach peak annual sales in excess of $1 B. Iniparib, among the first of Viehbacher's acquisitions at Sanofi, was projected to offset some of the lost revenues the company expects when Lovenox and Plavix lose patent protection soon.
In the usual corporate refrain in such situations, Sanofi will further analyze its results before reporting its options. The drug is in other late stage trials for squamous NSCLC and in phase II trials for other lung and breast cancers.
Posted by Bruce Lehr Jan 28th 2011.
More of this from In the Pipeline including an update of competition in this area (PARP1)
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2011/01/31/sanofis_parp1_inhibitor_misses.php
Posted by: bigredbruce | 01/31/2011 at 03:30 PM