Roche announced today that it’s division, known as Genentech, has produced positive results in a phase three EMILIA study of a drug called trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1). Genentech says that the drug met the endpoint target for the trial, showing marked improvement for women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

The study showed that the risks of the disease worsening or death of a patient taking their drug (T-DM1), was reduced by 35%, when compared with those on apatinib plus Xeloda® (capecitabine) chemotherapy (HR=0.65, p

Genentech and Roche say they plan to submit applications for trastuzumab emtansine in HER2-positive mBC this year to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA). Trastuzumab emtansine is an investigational medicine. What the drug does is basically attach the antibody trastuzumab to a chemotherapy DM1, using a stable linker. Thus, the medicine is delivered inside the cell cancer cells.

Written by Rupert Shepherd