Targeted failure of the week. Post No 32. Eribulin

Eisai Co. (4523)’s breast cancer drug Halaven failed to show an advantage over Roche Holdings Inc.’s Xeloda in women whose disease had spread to other parts of the body, a study found.

Women with advanced breast cancer who were given Halaven after at least two prior chemotherapy regimens lived a median 15.9 months compared with 14.5 months for those given the Roche treatment, according to research presented today at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The results weren’t statistically significant.

From my perspective eribulin looks nice:

Structurally,eribulin is a fully synthetic macrocyclic ketone analogue of the marine spongenatural product halichondrin B, the latter being a potent naturally-occurringmitotic inhibitor with a unique mechanism of action found in the Halichondriagenus of sponges. Eribulin is a mechanistically-unique inhibitor of microtubuledynamics, binding predominantly to a small number of high affinity sites at theplus ends of existing microtubules. Eribulin exerts its anticancer effects bytriggering apoptosis of cancer cells following prolonged and irreversiblemitotic blockade.

Well, there is hope in the company that eribulin will be successful in earlier stages of cancer treatment. Let’s wish them good luck!