Novartis' patupilone fails in Ph III advanced ovarian cancer trial

Swiss drug major Novartis announced last night that its experimental cancer drug patupilone (EPO906) did not show a significant overall survival advantage in a Phase III trial of patients with advanced ovarian cancer, refractory or resistant to platinum-based therapy The comparator arm in the trial was Doxil/Caelyx (pegylated liposomal doxorubicin).

No new or unexpected serious adverse events in the patupilone arm were identified in the trial, said Novartis, adding that, as a result of the disappointing findings, it does not plan to proceed with regulatory filings of the compound.

Although disappointing, the fact that Novartis is dropping a late-stage developmental drug hardly moved the firm's share price, which inched up 0.2%, at CHF51.15 Swiss francs in early trading dipped just as analysts had not put too much store on patupilone. In fact, Carrie Duncan, health care analyst with Macquarie Group in Zurich, who has an outperform rating on Novartis, quoted by Dow Jones, said:"This has always been a risky project, and not one that's in the company's focus."