The Swiss drug developer, Roche, announced on Monday the failure of their more recent GOYA trials for a blood cancer drug, called Gazyva. According to statements, the trials failed to meet the standards and endpoints against its competition.
Roche’s Gazyva drug wasn’t approved for not delivering improvements in treating the disease when compared to drugs on the market. Gazyva aimed to help patients suffering from large B-cell lymphoma cancer.
The Gazyva drug is a monoclonal antibody, designed by the Swiss laboratory. That was intended to be attached to body protein known as CD20. The primary objective is to destroy directly B-cells along with the human system.
The drug was meant to be used along with chemotherapy on diagnosed patients, just like the current drug in the market called Rituxan. Roche has the previous history of delivering high-end treatment drugs for treating cancer diseases, such as leukemia.
“ We were hopeful we could show a similar result for people with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and once again improve on the standard of care,” said Sandra Horning, Roche’s Chief Medical Officer in the statement.
Therapeutics News: #Roche receives Blood #Cancer drug blow after #Gazyva trial fails to meet endpoint. #Reuters: https://t.co/TOo0tQHHdj
— Living Safely (@LS_Medical) July 18, 2016
B-cell Lymphoma
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 25,000 cases of large blood cancer are diagnosed every year in the United States, and over 10,000 deaths are reported by year.
Lymphoma is one of the most common blood cancer forms, and it occurs due to an overproduction of a type of blood cells called lymphocytes. That can travel to several parts of the body such as the lymph nodes, bone marrow, and blood, creating tumors.
Although doctors are not sure what are the main causes of this type of blood cancer, there are more common types of patients. Such as white men in an advanced age, around 64 years old.
According to doctors, the first sign of the disease is having a lump in the neck, armpit or groin with an unusual grow. Lumps can also appear on other body parts, such as the bowel or the stomach.
Other symptoms include having a fever, night sweats, itching, weight loss, chest pain, cough, stomach pain, shortness of breath, between others.
Roche’s trials were performed in over 1,418 untreated patients suffering from aggressive blood cancer in combination with typical chemotherapy cocktails. The Swiss company aimed to give a better and more aggressive response to the disease.
Roche’s trials didn’t show a reduction in the progression of the disease, nor the reduction of risk of death in patients suffering from this type of blood cancer. Despite researchers, having previous results that the drug could help.
Gazyva is a drug already available in over 70 countries around the globe that is used with Chlorambucil in treatments for lymphocytic leukemia.
In the United States, Gazyva was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in February 2016, to be used along with a drug called Bendamustine for patients suffering from follicular lymphoma disease.
Source: Roche