Pharmacia Cancer Drug Fails Late-Stage Trial

Pharmacia Corp. said a key experimental cancer drug obtained in its $650-million purchase of biotech firm Sugen had proved ineffective, a setback for medicines meant to starve tumors by shutting off their blood supply.

The Peapack, N.J.-based firm said an analysis of a late-stage trial showed the drug, called SU5416, was not effective among patients with colorectal cancer that had spread to other parts of the body.

Pharmacia said it also was ending studies of the drug in a wide range of other tumors, including lung, breast and AIDS-related Kaposi’s sarcoma.

The intravenously given medicine was the crown jewel of Sugen, the California biotech firm Pharmacia bought in 1999 that developed the synthetic compound. It is designed to block receptors for one of the hottest targets in oncology, a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor.