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Sanofi-Aventis: Taxotere fighting to maintain blockbuster status

...Within gastric cancer, Taxotere has already gained Japanese approval and looks set to gain European approval following recent recommendation by the CHMP.Gastric cancer is the fourth most common tumor type and second leading cause of cancer-related death, accounting for 930,000 new cases and 700,000 deaths per year worldwide.

Patients are under served, with limited treatment options available leading to poor prognosis.

The current standard treatment consisting of epirubicin in combination with cisplatin and 5-FU offers a median overall survival of 8.9 months.

However, with Taxotere demonstrating an overall median of 9.2 months, and thus just a three week survival improvement, the approval is unlikely to bring a dramatic improvement to the treatment of gastric cancer.Similarly, the approval is unlikely to add significantly to Taxotere's sales.

By initially targeting three of the 'big four' tumor types - breast cancer, prostate cancer and By targeting those tumor types where no standard of care or only ineffective treatment exists, any positive clinical trial data is bound to result in significant uptake of the drug.

While unlikely to add significant amounts to Taxotere�s t...