Pharmaceutical Business review

Spectrum commences new phase II study of bladder cancer drug

EOquin has already shown encouraging activity and safety in superficial bladder cancer in phase I and phase II studies performed in 68 patients with multiple, recurrent disease.

Patients with high-risk superficial bladder cancer risk early relapse, sometimes in the form of invasive, life-threatening stages of bladder cancer. Establishing the efficacy and safety of EOquin in this patient population, which has not been studied before, is likely to expand EOquin’s use to this patient group.

Approximately 50 such patients will be treated in several teaching hospitals in the Netherlands.

“EOquin has so far met or exceeded our expectations,” stated Dr Rajesh Shrotriya, chairman, CEO and president of Spectrum. “We continue to see high activity in the studies performed so far with marker lesions of superficial bladder cancer. We believe that the further expedited development and registration of this drug will result in a sizable contribution to the therapy of this very frequent malignancy that is known to significantly affect the quality of life of patients.”