Dive Brief:
- Nexavar (sorafenib) is a blockbuster oncology product that is tested and marketed by Onyx Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of a Bayer/Amgen collaboration.
- Currently, Nexavar is approved in Europe for treatment of liver, kidney and thyroid cancers.
- Bayer Healthcare has expressed disappointment in the results from the breast cancer trial, but made it clear that this failure does not affect the use of Nexavar for other approved uses.
Dive Insight:
Onyx Pharmaceuticals has slowly and painstakingly gained various approvals for Nexavar as a cancer drug used in different settings and among different populations. The RESILIENCE trial evaluated Nexavar combined with Roche’s Xeloda (capecitabane) versus Xeloda and placebo in women with advanced HER2-negative breast cancer.
The women participating in the trial did not just have advanced cancer -- they had also seen little benefit from prior taxane therapy or demonstrated resistance to anthracycline. Despite the breast cancer trial results, Nexavar will continue to be an important part of the oncology treatment landscape.