Sanofi aventis sees Taxotere benefits

Sanofi-aventis has announced that its docetaxel injection concentrate, Taxotere, has yielded positive results in clinical trials for the treatment of first-line advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).

The French firm presented the results of seven clinical trials at the 12th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Seoul, South Korea, demonstrating the benefits of treatment with Taxotere rather than vinca-alkaloid-based regimens.

“This individual patient data meta-analysis provides the evidence that one-third generation agent, Taxotere, is significantly superior to vinca-alkaloid regimens, in the first-line treatment of patients with NSCLC,” said Jean-Yves Douillard, professor and head of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Centre R Gauducheau in France.

Overall survival rates were higher with a Taxotere-based regimen, according to the information presented in Seoul, with a multivariate analysis “strongly” confirming the benefits.

Tolerability was also found to be improved with a Taxotere-based regimen, with further analysis still required to confirm this.

In the six months to June 2007, sanofi-aventis’s net sales stood at 14.116 billion euros (9.55 billion pounds), according to financial information published by the firm last month.