Bayer, Onyx Win U.S. Approval for Colorectal Cancer Drug

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-27/bayer-onyx-win-u-s-approval-for-colorectal-cancer-treatment.html

Bayer AG (BAYN), Germany’s largest drugmaker, and Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) won U.S. regulatory approval for an advanced-colorectal cancer drug for patients whose disease progressed after trying standard therapies.

The Food and Drug Administration said in a statement today that it cleared the treatment, called Stivarga, a month ahead of schedule. The two companies said they will jointly promote regorafenib in the U.S., with South San Francisco-based Onyx receiving royalties of 20 percent on global sales of the drug.

Cancer that starts in the colon or rectum is the third-most common cancer in the U.S., excluding skin tumors, affecting about 140,000 men and women each year, according to the American Cancer Society. Stivarga may generate $536 million in sales in 2016 for Bayer and $251 million for Onyx, according to the averages of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

“Stivarga is the latest colorectal cancer treatment to demonstrate an ability to extend patients’ lives and is the second drug approved for patients with colorectal cancer in the past two months,” Richard Pazdur, director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in the statement.