Merck Serono completes enrolment for Erbitux gastric cancer trial

Merck Serono has completed the enrolment process for a forthcoming clinical trial of its drug Erbitux among gastric cancer patients.

The company has recruited a total of 870 subjects for the Expand trial, a phase III study that will assess Erbitux in combination with cisplatin and capecitabine chemotherapies as a potential first-line therapy for advanced/metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma.

It is a multi-centre, open label, randomised and controlled study that will take place at 185 sites in 25 nations globally.

The trial's primary endpoint is to achieve an improvement in progression-free survival rates, with promising data having already been gathered from phase II studies.

Dr Florian Lordick of the Klinikum Braunschweig at Germany's Hannover Medical School said: "Gastric cancer is known to be difficult to treat, therefore patients need new treatment options that exceed the benefit of classical chemotherapy."

Last month, Merck Serono announced that it will be collaborating with Philochem to conduct research into new innovations in the area of fertility.