Schering-Plough announces publication of ‘landmark’ Noxafil studies

Schering-Plough has announced the publication of two clinical studies in the New England Journal of Medicine showing the efficacy of Noxafil (posaconazole) in preventing live-threatening invasive fungal infections in high-risk patients.

The research showed that the oral suspension of the compound exhibited prophylaxis of such infections in patients at risk of Aspergillus and Candida, with a reduction in overall mortality compared to comparison drugs.

Over 1,200 patients were involved in the clinical trial which showed fewer breakthrough infections with Aspergillus in high-risk patients administered with Noxafil compared to those receiving fluconazole or itraconazole.

Noxafil, which received marketing in the EU as a treatment of some invasive fungal infections n 2005, is an innovative triazole antifungal agent.

Oliver Cornely, lead author of the study, said: “Prophylaxis is a commonly used therapeutic strategy, because the diagnosis of fungal infection is often delayed or difficult to establish with certainty and a delay in antifungal treatment increases mortality.”

He added that posaconazole could be used to prevent infection with common pathogens Aspergillus and Candida.

Noxafil received marketing approval from the European Commission for the prevention of invasive fungal infections in November 2006 in high-risk patients, such as those receiving remission-induction chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukaemia or myelodysplastic syndromes.