News briefs from Threshold, Merck KGaA and GSK

US biotech firm Threshold Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: THLD) said yesterday that data from a Phase IIb trial of TH-302 in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer will be presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology, Austria, September 28 to October 2, 2012. New finding on overall survival indicate that patients treated with gemcitabine alone had a median overall survival of 6.9 months versus 9.2 months with TH-302 340 mg/m2 + gemcitabine (HR: 0.955, 95% CI: 0.67-1.37, p=0.800) and 8.7 months with TH-302 240 mg/m2 + gemcitabine (HR: 0.960, 95% CI: 0.67-1.38, p=0.827).

However, adding TH-302 to gemcitabine only reduced the relative risk of death by 4.5% over gemcitabine alone - a small benefit that was far from statistical significance, with this news sending Threshold’s shares tumbling over 19% to $7.05 in Monday trading. The drug is being developed with Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRK: DE), which earlier this year, entered a deal worth up to $550 million to Threshold - including $25 million upfront - to gain global rights to develop and commercializeTH-302 (The Pharma Letter February 6).

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