Rituxan alert

Thanks for posting this alert. It doesn’t look like anything we need to be worried about, nothing dangerous about it. Here’s what I found:
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April 29 (Bloomberg) — Genentech Inc. and Biogen Idec Inc.’s cancer drug Rituxan failed in a study as a treatment for lupus, sending down shares of both companies and those of Roche Holding AG, Genentech’s majority owner.

The study, known as Explorer, fell short on all measures of effectiveness, Biogen Idec and Genentech said today in a statement. Lupus is a disease in which the immune system goes awry and attacks healthy tissue as if it were a foreign virus, causing inflammation and pain.

Rituxan, a drug approved for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis, generated $2.29 billion in U.S. sales in 2007. It is designed to work by depleting B cells, which give rise to antibodies that attack organs in people with lupus. Rituxan’s use for lupus would have the potential to add $800 million in annual sales, according to George Farmer, an analyst with Wachovia Capital Markets.

The trial was a “complete failure,” said William Tanner, an analyst at New York-based Leerink Swann & Co., in a note to clients. That’s “somewhat of a surprise to us and creates an even more challenging year for” Genentech’s stock.
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