Novartis'
Unfortunately, that's all the information that Novartis gave investors; the full data will be presented at a scientific meeting in October. The number to beat is 5.9, the number of months that Pfizer's
Even if it looks like Afinitor is working better than Sutent in pancreatic cancer, it's not going to help sales all that much given the small number of patients that get that disease. But the drug working better than placebo is a good sign that the drug can work on a variety of tumor types. Afinitor is already approved for treating kidney cancer after patients have failed with Sutent or Nexavar from Bayer and Onyx Pharmaceuticals
Novartis is testing Afinitor in six other cancer types, including the large breast-cancer market, under the aptly named WIDE (Worldwide Initiative to Develop Everolimus) program. Only the results of those trials will tell us if Afinitor is the next Gemzar, which brought in more than $1.3 billion for Eli Lilly
Austin Edwards thinks this could be your next big winner.