ZURICH: Combining Roche's Perjeta and Herceptin drugs with chemotherapy reduced recurrence of aggressive breast cancer or death compared to Herceptin and chemo, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday.
Roche hopes the important trial outcome will help shield its oncology franchise from cheaper copies.
"These results from the positive Aphinity study represent an important addition to the body of data for Perjeta in the treatment of people with HER2-positive early breast cancer," Sandra Horning, Roche's chief medical officer, said.
Herceptin brought in $6.75 billion in sales last year for Roche but is losing patent protection, exposing it to competition from a biosimilar version that Mylan and its partner Biocon may introduce in Europe later this year.
Herceptin was initially approved in 1998, while follow-on Perjeta won the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's blessing in 2013.
Roche has said its 2017 guidance of sales and profit rising at a low- to mid-single digit percentage rate was issued irrespective of the Aphinity outcome, but analysts including those at Jefferies contend this trial will likely be a catalyst for shares.
(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Michael Shields)
Roche hopes the important trial outcome will help shield its oncology franchise from cheaper copies.
"These results from the positive Aphinity study represent an important addition to the body of data for Perjeta in the treatment of people with HER2-positive early breast cancer," Sandra Horning, Roche's chief medical officer, said.
Herceptin brought in $6.75 billion in sales last year for Roche but is losing patent protection, exposing it to competition from a biosimilar version that Mylan and its partner Biocon may introduce in Europe later this year.
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Herceptin was initially approved in 1998, while follow-on Perjeta won the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's blessing in 2013.
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Roche has said its 2017 guidance of sales and profit rising at a low- to mid-single digit percentage rate was issued irrespective of the Aphinity outcome, but analysts including those at Jefferies contend this trial will likely be a catalyst for shares.
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(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Michael Shields)
© Thomson Reuters 2017
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