Amgen’s ovarian cancer drug meets phase 3 goal

Amgen's ovarian cancer drug trebananib met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) in a phase 3 clinical trial.

The TRINOVA-1 trial was evaluating trebananib plus paclitaxel versus placebo plus paclitaxel in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. A statistically significant difference was observed in PFS with a 34% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death. The median PFS was 7.2 months in the trebananib arm versus 5.4 months in the control arm.

The primary analysis of the trial is overall survival (OS), and these results are expected to mature in 2014.

"The TRINOVA-1 study is the first of three Phase 3 trials designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of trebananib in patients with ovarian cancer. Angiopoietin inhibition has been a focus of research at Amgen and these results suggest that the novel biology of trebananib may offer a promising approach for patients with ovarian cancer."

Sean E. Harper, M.D., executive vice president of Research and Development at Amgen.

Approximately 250,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer globally each year. Over 70% of women will ovarian cancer will present with advanced disease at diagnosis. Statistics show that just 45% of women with ovarian cancer are likely to survive for five years compared to up to 89% of women with breast cancer.

The first World Ovarian Cancer Day was held on May 8th, 2013.