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news.A recent study has reported that treatment with Sanofi-Aventis' Taxotere offers a significant improvement over Bristol-Myers Squibb's Taxol in overall survival for women with advanced breast cancer.
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The head-to-head study of two of the most widely used chemotherapy agents in breast cancer shows a significantly increased overall survival of 15.4 months for those patients who received Taxotere versus 12.7 months for those who took Taxol.
The investigation recruited patients with cancer that had progressed after previous treatment with an anthracycline-based therapy. Among patients evaluable for response (tumor shrinkage), those who received Taxotere had significantly higher response rates (37% vs. 26%) and significantly longer median duration of response (7.5 months vs. 4.6 months), than those who received paclitaxel.
Although shares in Sanofi rose by over 2.5% following the news, analysts reported confounding predictions of the study’s outcome on drug sales, with some commentators pointing to a 2003 publication which had already announced the results as evidence the new document would not alter uptake. Other analysts saw the study as a potential boost to Sanofi, which would help the company achieve its target of 10% sales growth in the US