Seattle Genetics at ASH 2007 - SGN-33 (part II)
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
Chemotherapeutic Drugs in The Clinic – Competitors or Potential Partners?
Obviously, SGN-33 was not directly compared to any other agent, so insight gained from comparing SGN-33 to other agents from different clinical trials is far from being conclusive. In addition, a comparison of a naked antibody (that will likely be given in combination with other drugs), to other chemo and combination regimens is not a fair one. Nevertheless, these comparisons are the only means researchers and investors alike have when evaluating the prospects of SGN-33.
The efficacy/safety ratio of SGN-33 is very impressive when compared to available treatments as well as other treatments currently evaluated in clinical trials. The cornerstone treatment for older AML patients is low-dose araC which has less than 20% complete response rate as a single agent (compared with 29% for SGN-33 in the current trial). araC is typically administered with other agents and is currently evaluated in combination with some novel drug candidates. These combinations result in a much better response rate, in the range of 30-60% among a variety of patient populations.
