Breast cancer drug trial in Taiwan 'successful'

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A Taiwanese firm on Sunday released what it called the "very successful" results of a blind trial on a newly developed drug for treating breast cancer.

Though the results failed to reach a "clinically significant primary endpoint," they provide meaningful data to help experiment design in the next phase, according to biotech company OBI Pharma.

If the highly anticipated drug OBI-822 passes clinical trials, the Taiwanese firm would be the first in the world to develop a carbohydrate-based vaccine for breast cancer, said President of Academia Sinica Wong Chi-huey to local newspaper United Daily News.

Overseeing clinical trials for the vaccine, Huang Chiun-sheng said the team is excited that preliminary findings show OBI-822 could benefit patients substantially, and the team will redesign phase 3 based on the previous results.

Huang expressed he is optimistic that the drug would pass phase 3, and stressed that results show the drug has passed safety assessments.

Researchers began phase 2/3 of their clinical trial on OBI-822 in October 2010, and results were unveiled ahead of the originally specified date at the end of March.

OBI Pharma Chairman Chang Nien-tzu said to local media that the blind test was very successful, and that the actual results were better than predicted ones.

Patients who participated in the test saw an "evident improvement on overall survival," said Chang. The firm will begin designing the global phase 3 experiment to be held in the US or Europe - expanding the numbers of recipients enrolled in the trial worldwide.

According to United Daily News, when products fail to pass phase 3, pharmaceutical companies usually terminate their development plans for the products.

Another strategy would be to develop a drug for a disease other than breast cancer so the value of the drug and company would not collapse in an instant, but reassessments would be necessary.

When asked whether the firm would consider cooperating with major multinational companies for the global phase 3 trial, OBI Pharma General Manager Amy Huang told the Economic Daily News that the firm does not rule out the possibility.

Huang said the firm had reached out to 40 large multinationals in the past year, and even if it were to sell the patent of the product, it would not sell the product at too cheap a price in consideration of OBI Pharma's investors.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Taiwanese women, ranking number four in death rates. Approximately 10,000 women develop breast cancer per year, according to data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW).