Monthly Archives: February 2008

This Week, Perhaps More Than Any Other Single Week, Highlights the Pitfalls in Cancer Drug Development

Over the last couple of days we’ve heard a lot about the failure of Nexavar in NSCLC. We’ve heard that as Nexavar’s potential in NSCLC diminishes, Avastin establishes itself as an even more important product for NSCLC patients. At the same time we’re hearing a lot about the looming FDA decision on Avastin in metastatic [...]

Interview with John Docherty, President, Helix BioPharma

The Canadian biopharmaceutical company Helix BioPharma is focused on the development and commercialization of innovative cancer therapeutics, specifically protein therapeutics for cancer. Founded in 1995 through a series of mergers, Helix BioPharma is publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as HBP. Based on its proprietary core technologies, Helix’s two key initiatives are Topical Interferon [...]

Compendia: The Bridge Between FDA Approved Indications and Off-label Drug Usage

On behalf of OBR, author Bryan Cote contacted 1000 oncology practices via a private e-mail survey featuring 10 questions. Disseminated in September 2007, 104 oncology practices responded; of which 68 were practice managers, 21 physicians, 11 pharmacists, and 4 administrative/billing managers. In October, the author followed up with 20 of the 104 respondents by telephone, [...]