Content about Tyrosine kinase inhibitors

NEW YORK — An experimental kidney cancer drug made by Pfizer didn't extend the time in which patients survived without their disease worsening when compared with a competing drug, according to results of a late-stage clinical trial released Wednesday.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Breast cancer patients taking an experimental drug made by Roche subsidiary Genentech lived significantly longer than those taking another drug made by GlaxoSmithKline, according to results of a late-stage clinical trial.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — A specialty pharmacy provider has begun selling a drug made by Pfizer for treating kidney cancer.

The company announced that it had launched Inlyta (axitinib), which the Food and Drug Administration approved last month for treating renal cell carcinoma in patients with advanced disease for whom first-line systemic therapy has failed. According to the American Cancer Society, 60,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with the disease each year, and 13,000 die.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug made by Pfizer for treating advanced kidney cancer, the agency said Friday.

The FDA announced the approval of Inlyta (axitinib) for patients with advanced kidney cancer, also known as renal cell carcinoma, who have not responded to another drug for the disease. The drug, a twice-daily pill, works by blocking certain proteins called kinases that are involved with tumor growth and disease progression.

NEW YORK — A Food and Drug Administration panel of 13 advisers has voted in favor of a drug made by Pfizer for treating kidney cancer, the drug maker said Wednesday.

Pfizer announced that the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted unanimously to state that axitinib's benefits outweighed its risks in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma for whom first-line treatments had failed.

RIDGEFIELD, Conn. — An investigational treatment for lung cancer made by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals extended patients’ survival by more than four months, according to results of a late-stage clinical trial announced Thursday.

BI said the phase 2b/3 “LUX-Lung 1” trial of BIBW 2992 (afatinib) showed a fourfold increase in survival among advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients taking the drug versus those taking placebo, whose survival was extended by one month.

LONDON The Food and Drug Administration has accepted AstraZeneca’s regulatory application for an investigational cancer drug, the Anglo-Swedish drug maker said Thursday.

AstraZeneca announced the FDA’s acceptance of its application for vandetanib, a drug for treating patients with advanced medullary thyroid cancer. The agency gave the drug priority review status and expected to take action on it in January.

NEW YORK Pfizer reported mixed results this week in a late-stage clinical trial combining two drugs in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

The drug maker said the combination of Pfizer’s Sutent (sunitinib) and Tarceva (erlotinib), made by Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals, kept the disease from progressing, but did not improve patients’ overall survival, which was the trial’s primary goal. The company expects to present results at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Milan in October.