More Videos
SPECIAL REPORT
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- Hewlett-Packard Profit Rises, Matches Guidance
- Paul: Audit the Fed
- The Social Media Gaming Threat
- Nov. 23: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Holiday Travel Outlook
- Cramer: Buy These Banks, If...
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- HP's Mark Hurd
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- 9 Stocks That Play Rising Water Costs: Strategists
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Gold Prices Can Double in 3 Years: Portfolio Manager
- Nov. 23: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Help Wanted—Please Run $4 Billion University
- Apple Comes to AT&T's Rescue
- More Consumers Giving 'Black Friday' the Cold Shoulder
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- Tuesday's Heavy Dose of Data to Dictate 'Risk' Behavior
- Hewlett-Packard Earnings Rise, Match Guidance
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- Cramer: What Monday’s Housing Number Really Means
- Why the Dollar Will Likely Stay Weak for Some Time
- Bear, Lehman Execs Weren't Wiped Out by Crisis: Study
- How Real Estate Investors Skew Housing's Reality
PHARMA'S MARKET VIDEO
Cholesterol Drug Battle: Niaspan vs. Zetia 
16 Nov 2009Cardiologist Grades Cholesterol Drug Study 16 Nov 2009
Merck's Cholesterol Drugs Under Pressure 16 Nov 2009
Cholesterol Drug Battle: Merck vs. Abbott Labs 16 Nov 2009
Cholesterol Drug Battle 16 Nov 2009
Novo Nordisk CEO on Diabetes Epidemic 13 Nov 2009
RSS FEED
Pharma's Market
Text Size 
 |
Analysts had forecast that if the drug worked well in this test it could have added several hundred million dollars, maybe even billions, to Avastin's annual revenue. The thinking was that the read-through by oncologists would have been that the drug might also work in early stages of other cancers and start using Avastin on those tumors as well. But they'll have to wait. The companies say they're still confident Avastin might work on early stage colon cancer and they're continuing with eight other studies testing the drug in the early stages of different tumors.
Nonetheless, shares of the Swiss drugmaker Roche [RHHBY
Loading...
()
] are getting hammered in overseas trading. They're only sold over the counter in the US.
When Roche was chasing Genentech a lot of people speculated the company was in a hurry to get the deal done before these results came out. The purported fear was if the drug worked Genentech's stock price would soar and possibly put the company out of Roche's price range. Some even floated the idea that Roche had an inkling the study might be positive and, therefore, it was in a rush to come to terms with DNA. This, I think, proves those speculators wrong. I even wonder whether Roche might be kicking itself now for not having the chutzpah to roll the dice and wait until these results came in. Maybe it could've picked up Genentech on the cheap. Analysts thought DNA shares would've tanked if the test turned out this way.
Interestingly, a Genentech spokesperson says the company's President of Product Development, Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann won't be available for a CNBC interview today. When test results have gone their way (and that's more often than not), she has almost always come on our air first thing in the morning to take a victory lap. Not this time. Maybe it's because she'll soon be relegated to an advisory role or maybe Roche is calling the shots now and she doesn't have much of a say in the media strategy anymore. But this was a Genentech study, not a Roche study. This was Dr. Hellmann's baby. After a tremendous string of successful clinical trials, it's a shame she couldn't go out with another big win.
But, as I know she'd be the first to say, the biggest disappointment here is for patients.
Questions? Comments? and follow me on Twitter at mhuckman
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes