Lilly's Alimta misses maintenance therapy endpoint in NSCLC

Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY) said maintenance therapy with Alimta pemetrexed plus Avastin bevacizumab missed the primary endpoint of improving median overall survival (OS) vs. Avastin alone in the Phase III POINTBREAK trial in stage IIIb/IV non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer patients (12.6 vs. 13.4 months, p=0.949). However, Alimta plus Avastin met the secondary endpoint of improving median progression-free survival (PFS) vs. Avastin alone (6.0 vs. 5.6 months, p=0.012). The open-label trial enrolled 939 patients who received first-line treatment with Alimta, carboplatin and Avastin or paclitaxel, carboplatin and Avastin every three weeks for up to four cycles. Patients who did not progress received maintenance therapy of Alimta plus Avastin or Avastin alone. Data were presented at the Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology. ...