Breast Cancer Study Boosts Genentech

A report that Genentech Inc.’s cancer treatment drug Avastin prolonged the lives of breast cancer patients in a large clinical trial sent shares of the biotech giant soaring 18% on Friday.

The results of the trial were announced by the National Institutes of Health six months ahead of expectations, an indication of the importance of the findings.

“This is quite exciting and could quite possibly save lives,” said Dr. Dennis Slamon, director of clinical research for the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA. “This study shows it delays the progression of the disease significantly.”

Avastin is an intravenous drug that slows the proliferation of new blood vessels that feed tumors. Without a blood supply, tumors die.

The National Cancer Institute, the unit of the NIH that sponsored the study, said the results showed that patients who received Avastin in combination with chemotherapy were able to slow the spread of breast cancer by about four months compared with chemotherapy alone.

The study included 722 women throughout the country with newly diagnosed metastatic breast cancer, a classification that means cancer has spread to other areas in the body besides the breast.

The study, which tracked the women from December 2001 to May 2004, also found the drug had few side effects, with neuropathy -- or problems in peripheral nerve function -- and hypertension being the main ones, said Dr. Kathy D. Miller, assistant professor of medicine at the Indiana University Cancer Center, the principal investigator for the study.

“This is a huge improvement to see a delay of four months in the progression of the disease,” said Miller. “We are all so excited.”

More than 200,000 women are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and an estimated 40,110 women will die from the disease this year, the NIH said.

Genentech said it would meet with Food and Drug Administration officials to discuss approval of Avastin for breast cancer treatment -- which analysts said could come by 2006.

Avastin was approved by the FDA in February 2004 for treating colon cancer. A subsequent study found it also was effective in treating lung cancer, and the drug is being studied for treating pancreatic, ovarian and kidney cancers.

“So far we’ve seen this drug be successful in treating three different cancers,” said Colleen Wilson, spokeswoman at South San Francisco-based Genentech. “It is really exciting for breast cancer patients.”

Shares of Genentech, which is majority-owned by Swiss drug maker Roche Holding, jumped $10.72 to $69.35 a share on the New York Stock Exchange -- holding their gains on a day when the benchmark Dow Jones industrial average plunged almost 200 points. Since mid-March, when news of Avastin’s promise as a treatment for lung cancer first surfaced, Genentech’s stock has ballooned 57%.

“What we are actually seeing here is this drug is having a major effect on some very difficult-to-treat cancers,” said Ronald Renaud, an analyst with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. who upgraded Genentech to a strong buy. “It’s easy to see how this drug could be a multibillion-dollar product opportunity.”

Based on the dose used in the clinical study, a breast cancer patient would pay about $8,800 a month for Avastin, Genentech said. Total treatment for a year would be about $60,000, J.P. Morgan estimated.

This month, Genentech reported first-quarter U.S. sales of $202 million for Avastin as a colon cancer treatment, slightly below what analysts expected.

But if other types of cancer treatment are included, annual sales of the drug could approach $4 billion, Renaud said.