#ES­MO17: Roche ex­tends los­ing streak with a set­back for Zelb­o­raf as No­var­tis com­bo surges ahead

MADRID — Roche is on a los­ing streak.

Hard on the heels of a Phase III flop for a key eye drug, the phar­ma gi­ant was forced to con­cede at ES­MO that Zelb­o­raf failed to sig­nif­i­cant­ly help a group of pa­tients with Stage 3 melanoma. And they ac­knowl­edged that flop just as No­var­tis her­ald­ed a suc­cess in a Stage 3 group with their com­bi­na­tion of Tafin­lar and Mekin­ist.

Roche did note a suc­cess on an ear­li­er stage of the dis­ease, with a 46% re­duc­tion in re­cur­rence risk record­ed in stage IIC-II­IB pa­tients.

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