Prostate Cancer Advance, and Europeans Free Riding on American Research

by Mike Kimel

There’s a story going around in the news about a new prostate cancer drug. Here’s press release:

A life-extending new drug to treat patients with advanced prostate cancer, developed by The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden Hospital, has received its UK license.

Abiraterone acetate, marketed by Janssen under the trade name ZYTIGA®, has been shown in clinical trials to prolong survival for men with advanced prostate cancer. An estimated 10,500 men in the UK have advanced prostate cancer that has become resistant to standard hormone treatments.

The once-daily pill officially launches in the UK today after the European Commission earlier this month approved it for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer. Abiraterone acetate was licensed for use in combination with the steroids prednisone or prednisolone, by men whose disease has developed resistance to conventional hormone therapies and docetaxel-based chemotherapy.

Abiraterone acetate is a new type of treatment for prostate cancer that works by blocking the synthesis of testosterone in all tissues including the tumour itself, not just the testes. This testosterone would otherwise continue to fuel prostate cancer growth and spread. Abiraterone was discovered at the ICR in what is now the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit and further developed at the ICR and The Royal Marsden.*

The ICR’s Chief Executive Professor Alan Ashworth says: “This drug was discovered in the UK at The Institute of Cancer Research. Its launch is the culmination of immense hard work and dedication by scientists and clinicians here and around the world. To have reached the point where thousands of prostate cancer patients will be able to benefit from this life-extending treatment is hugely rewarding.”

Royal Marsden Chief Executive Cally Palmer says: “The development of abiraterone by The Royal Marsden and the ICR highlights the national importance of funding pioneering cancer research. We are delighted our patients at The Royal Marsden have been among the first to benefit from the very latest in drug development.”

Another quote:

Results of a major international Phase III trial of almost 2,000 men jointly led by Professor Johann de Bono from the ICR and The Royal Marsden showed that patients given abiraterone acetate lived on average 15.8 months compared to 11.2 months for men taking a placebo. Pain also eased for a higher proportion of patients taking abiraterone, while side effects were easily manageable and reversible.

From the footnotes:

Cancer Research Technology assigned abiraterone acetate to BTG International Ltd, who in turn licensed it to Cougar Biotechnology Inc., now a member of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies.

Now, I’m not that familiar with British entitites, but as I understand it, a publicly funded university and its research hospital developed a new wonder-drug using grants from the public, a charity, and a formerly government owned but now private company. Commercialization rights eventually ended up with Janssen, a company owned by Johnson & Johnson.

How long will it be before Zytiga gets trotted out as an example of the European healthcare system free-riding on American research and who will be the first pundit to make that argument?