Eisai/Morphotek's farletuzumab fails on ovarian cancer Ph III trial

USA-based Morphotek, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese drug major Eisai (TYO: 4523) which acquired the firm for $325 million in 2007, presented disappointing top-line results from a Phase III study of its investigational agent farletuzumab (MORAb-003) in combination with carboplatin and a taxane in patients with platinum-sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer in first relapse.

The study found that farletuzumab in combination with carboplatin and a taxane did not meet the study's primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS). The post hoc exploratory analysis showed, however, a trend toward improved PFS in some patient subsets and further analysis is ongoing.

The preliminary safety analysis indicated that the most commonly reported adverse events were those known to be associated with the study chemotherapy agents. Additionally, some immune-mediated events were observed with farletuzumab.