Dendreon Presents Provenge Data in African Americans

Dendreon presented strong data on Provenge trials at the American Urological Association on Monday.

One of the abstracts focused on trial results for African Americans. In three Phase III trials, the median survival rate for African American men was 45.3 months for those treated with Provenge compared to 14.6 months for those in the control group.

African Americans only represented 4% of patients in the control test and 6.7% of the patients receiving Provenge. The company said that given the limited sample size, no definitive conclusions could be drawn and there were no statistically significant differences between race groups. However, African Americans benefited from the treatment.

"African American men are at the highest risk for prostate cancer in the United States and suffer a death rate 2.4 times higher when compared to Caucasian men and men of other ethnic groups," said Thomas A. Farrington, president and founder, Prostate Health Education Network, Inc., in a statement.

The AUA presentations are following a drop in Dendreon’s stock price following news that the Securities and Exchange Commission was launching a formal investigation. Before the news, the stock price had been around $9. Currently, Dendreon is around $7.64.

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The company will be presenting other trial results at ASCO in early June.

"These data presented at ASCO continue to support the overall survival benefit of PROVENGE and its mechanism of action," said Mark Frohlich, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer, in a statement.

The information contained in this article should not be construed as investment advice or as a solicitation to buy or sell any stock.

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