Let's start with MM-121 (a monoclonal antibody): Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc said one of three patient groups in a mid-stage trial of its experimental lung cancer drug failed to meet the main goal of improving survival rates after four months of treatment without the disease worsening.
The group was administered the drug, MM-121, in combination with erlotinib, an approved cancer treatment, for non-small cell lung cancer.
The main goal was to show a 40 percent improvement in progression-free survival after four months.
And then we have another targeted failure (see also here):
Hopes for a quick one-two punch against melanoma have hit a snag. A Phase I trial testing Bristol-Myers Squibb's Yervoy and Roche's Zelboraf in melanoma patients was stopped after signs of liver toxicity developed in several patients.
As the researchers reported online in the New England Journal of Medicine, four of the first 6 patients treated showed signs of liver toxicity, with significantly elevated enzyme levels. Among a second group of 6, who were treated with a lower dose of Zelboraf and the same dose of Yervoy, two experienced significantly elevated levels of enzymes and bilirubin.
The results were unexpected because Yervoy and Zelboraf patients rarely experience liver problems significant enough to limit their use, the researchers said. "[A]mple rationale exists to investigate combined therapy with these two agents," they wrote.
Well, here we have actually double-targeted failure - Yervoy is a targeted mAb and Zelboraf is a targeted B-Raf enzyme inhibitor. And again - how targeted drugs can be considered as targeted if they are SOOOO toxic???
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