The ASCO roundup: ArQule drug flunks a mid-stage test

Plenty of more early-stage and mid-stage study results came to light at ASCO over the past day. Here are some of the highlights: ArQule said that its lung cancer drug flunked a mid-stage study, but it flagged some positive results for a subset of patients taking the therapy. About two thirds of the patients taking a combination of ARQ-197 and Tarceva demonstrated an improvement in survival rates, but that wasn't enough to give it a significant statistical edge over Tarceva alone. Patients...

BMS, Pfizer cancer drugs take starring roles at ASCO

 Bristol-Myers Squibb's ipilimumab took the center ring at ASCO over the weekend, earning star billing for its promising data on melanoma. In a small trial, patients taking the drug lived a median of 10 months, compared to 6.4 months in a control group. And almost a quarter of the patients taking the therapy were alive after two years, compared to just 14 percent of the control group. "This is the first randomized placebo-controlled trial ever to show a survival benefit in Stage 4...

Biotech investors brace for annual ASCO data dump

Tomorrow night, the folks at ASCO will do their big abstract dump, showering the biotech world with an advance glimpse at the data that will make a few fortunes and lose others as share prices gyrate in response. Anyone looking for a primer on how this will play out should check out Adam Feuerstein's excellent take on TheStreet. Feuerstein notes that Celldex Therapeutics, Keryx and Delcath Systems have already seen their share prices surge ahead of the big science meeting. More tentative...