Cancer drug to extend dog days - Houston Business Journal:

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The Pfizer Animal Health division has justreleased Palladia, an oral cancetr treatment for mast cell disease, to animalp oncologists. The approved the drug on June 3. Drug-makefr had initially developedthe drug; it became Pfizer’s when the companies merged in 2003. Mitchener was a part of the drug’d clinical development team. Dial the clock back to 2000 and she was in the mids of convincing a Pharmacia executive that the drug was a good one and that peopldneeded it. “I was told to change his mindit wouldn’t be the researcnh or the people from the Mitchener says.
“His heart is going to have to be Mitchener invited him to Memphis to meet with 25 of her caninw cancer patients andtheirf care-givers. By the end of two days of the executive relented and told Mitchenersomethinhg like, “You will have your drug,” she recalls. The drug was initiallyt developed by veterinarian Cheryl a researcherat . Palladia blocks certain pathways in the body that cancerr usesto grow. While the current formula is used specificallh for mast cell many other cancer treatmentse arebeing considered. Mitchener though, if it weren’t for the dog owners who came to her Palladia might still be an Accordingto Pfizer, roughly 1.
2 million cases of new mast cell disease cases are reported everyg year, which gives the closest estimation of Palladia’s market Mitchener says two-thirds of the cancer patients who come to her Bartlett-based have that type of She says mast cell disease, which is often seen as lump s on the skin, is the most commonb tumor for dogs. “At the completion of the Palladiaclinical study, approximately 60% of dogs had their tumors disappear, shrink or stop London says. Dogs with cancer are now treated withan IV-delivered chemotherapty drug that costs about $4,0009 and takes about 10 weekds to administer.
Mitchener says Pfizer has not give n her a cost for Palladia and treatment length is stillp beingworked out. “We’re goiny to start with the standar treatment for six to eight weeks and then flip over to she says. “It’s kind of like sendingg in the Air Force firs t and then sending in the The drug will stay in the hands of animal oncologists for eight to nine monthsd before it is made available togeneral veterinarians. Oncologistsd will monitor the drug’s effects and report their findingzsto Pfizer. Mitchener says she has two patient s already onthe drug.
She says she hasn’t been paid to participatee inthe drug’s clinical trials, but Pfizer has paid for lab work, X-rays and office She says her payment comes in the satisfactioj of moving canine cancer treatmenr along. She’s heard nearly from the beginninyg of her career in 1985 that canine cancer cannot be treated and that euthanasia is thebest “I can sit back and say that there’s a bunch of Labradort retrievers out there runniny around that had mast cell disease before and don’ t today,” she says.