Results from a late-stage study
showed that Roche’s Avastin (bevacizumab) did not meet the primary endpoint of increasing overall survival compared to placebo in patients with advanced gastric cancer, the company said Tuesday.
The AVAGAST study enrolled 774 patients with gastric cancer who were randomised to receive Avastin plus Xeloda or fluorouracil and cisplatin chemotherapy compared to Xeloda or fluorouracil and cisplatin chemotherapy alone. The company noted that data from the trial will be submitted for presentation at ASCO's meeting in June.
Capital Market analyst Martin Voegtli remarked that failure to meet the primary endpoint in the trial could be partly covered if Avastin is able to meet secondary endpoints of the study, which include progression-free survival and time to progression. According to Deutsche Bank analysts, Roche had estimated that sales of Avastin for gastric cancer could reach between 500 million Swiss francs ($466 million) and 1 billion Swiss francs ($933 million).
