Eli Lilly Lung Cancer Treatment Experimental Drug Increases Survival

Drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. said its potential lung cancer treatment necitumumab has successful met an important standard by increasing survival time for patients in a late-stage study.

The company is now planning to seek approval from the FDA before the end of 2014. This news was a huge positive for the cancer drug maker, according to Reuters.

"Expectations were close to zero" for necitumumab, said J.P.Morgan analyst Chris Schott. But given the trial's success, Schott said he now believes it could generate annual sales of more than $1 billion, assuming still-undisclosed trial data are satisfactory and the product is approved.

In that trial, called INSPIRE, it was being tested in combination with Lilly's Alimta lung cancer drug and cisplatin among patients with the more common non-squamous form of the disease. If the drug does pass to the mass market, it could provide a much-needed boost for Lilly, which is bracing for losses of marketing exclusivity for its current crop of top-selling drugs including the antidepressant Cymbalta.

Necitumumab is a potential biologic drug that was developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and ImClone Systems Inc., which Lilly bought in 2008. Bristol-Myers ended its collaboration with Lilly over the drug earlier this year.

Biologic drugs are formed from living cells instead of mixing chemicals together.

Lilly had previously acquired partial rights to the experimental drug with its purchase of ImClone Systems for $6.5 billion in 2008.