Celgene's Abraxane plus gemcitabine extends survival in pancreatic cancer patients

US biotech firm Celgene Corp (Nasdaq: CELG) says that its Phase III clinical trial of Abraxane (nab-paclitaxel) in combination with gemcitabine (Eli Lilly’s Gemzar). in treatment-naive patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer demonstrated a statistically-significant improvement in overall survival compared to patients receiving gemcitabine alone [(median of 8.5 versus 6.7 months) (HR 0.72, P=0.000015)].

Abraxane, which is already approved to treat breast and lung cancer and has also demonstrated efficacy against melanoma,  may generate $2.1 billion in peak global sales for use in pancreatic cancer, according to Cowen & Co analyst Eric Schmidt quoted by Bloomberg.  The drug had sales of $106 million in the third quarter of 2012. Celgene has targeted Abraxane sales of between $1 billion and $1.25 billion in 2015, reaching as high as $2 billion in 2017, given additional indications are approved.

In the MPACT (Metastatic Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Clinical Trial) study, nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine demonstrated a 59% increase in one-year survival (35% vs 22%, p=0.0002) and demonstrated double the rate of survival at two years (9% vs 4%, p=0.02) as compared to gemcitabine alone.