Market For Angiogenesis Inhibitors Remains Wide Open After Failures of Compounds in Phase III Clinical Trials


April 2000 — British Biotech recently announced that marimastat showed no statistically significant advantage over a placebo in phase III glioblastoma clinical trials. In addition, Bayer halted the development of Bay 12-9566 for cancer and osteoarthritis indications last fall after the compound performed worse than a placebo in small cell lung cancer. These failures increase the opportunities for other angiogenesis inhibitors.

BioInsights, in a recent report entitled, Angiogenesis Inhibitors: A Detailed Analysis of Emerging Compounds, evaluated the potential of over 50 compounds in or near clinical development for the treatment of cancer, psoriasis, ophthalmic diseases, and arthritis. BioInsights believes that the five most promising classes of compounds in the near term are: (1) Cell proliferation and migration inhibitors, led by combretastatin from Oxigene and LY33531 from Eli Lilly and Company. Combretastatin, in a phase I trial of 18 patients with a range of cancers, reduced tumor blood flow in all patients. (2) Naturally occurring inhibitors, led by Endostatin and Angiostatin from EntreMed. The scientific community is eagerly awaiting the release of Endostatin data from phase I clinical trials. (3) Growth factor inhibitors, led by anti-VEGF from Genentech and ABX-IL8 from Abgenix. Anti-VEGF is in phase III clinical trials and Genentech recently reported preliminary positive phase II results in both non-small cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer. (4) Cell adhesion and survival inhibitors, led by Vitaxin-2 from MedImmune. Vitaxin-2 is an improved version of Vitaxin, which showed promise in early-stage clinical trials in solid tumors. And (5) MMP inhibitors, led by Prinomastat from Agouron Pharmaceuticals (Warner-Lambert). Prinomastat moved aggressively from phase I trials in cancer directly into phase III trials, but will have to succeed where similar compounds, marimastat and Bay 12-9566, failed. BioInsights believes that one or more of these compounds will be approved, possibly within the next year, and launch the market for angiogenesis inhibitors.

For more information about Angiogenesis Inhibitors: A Detailed Analysis of Emerging Compounds, please visit BioInsights on the web at www.bioinsights.net or contact us at 650-701-0280.

BioInsights is a research and consulting firm that focuses on emerging technologies and markets in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.