Roche to present cancer drug data at ASCO 2014

Roche has announced that it will be presenting the latest findings on various cancer drugs at this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting.

Taking place from May 30th to June 3rd, the event will see Roche present more than 320 abstracts covering 27 different medicines, encompassing approved medicines, investigational targeted combinations and the emerging pipeline.

These will include a phase I study of the new therapy anti-PDL1 in advanced bladder cancer and new findings on the anti-CD20 medicines MabThera/Rituxan and Gazyva, as well as data on the investigational compounds GDC-0199/ABT-199 and polatuzumab vedotin.

ASCO marks its 50th anniversary this year, with Roche medicines having been discussed in thousands of data presentations since the first annual meeting in 1964.

Sandra Horning, chief medical officer and head of global product development at Roche, said: "Data from nine approved and 18 investigational medicines, such as our anti-PDL1 immunotherapy, at ASCO this year demonstrate our continued commitment to improve outcomes for people with cancer."

This comes after the firm appointed Dr William Pao as global head of the oncology disease and translational area within its pharma research and early development division earlier this year.