In a recent news release, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)’s abiraterone acetate - a pill that will be marketed as Zytiga – has been approved for use in late-stage prostate cancer patients who had earlier received chemotherapy.
 
Zytiga is produced by Centocor Ortho Biotech, based in Horsham, Pa. In combination with the steroid prednisone, the drug chiefly targets a protein that can effectively help reduce levels of testosterone, the male hormone which plays an important role in fuelling prostate cancer growth.
 
According to the FDA, Zytiga was evaluated in clinical studies that involved 1,195 men suffering from advanced prostate cancer, with the tumors showing growth in spite of chemotherapy. It was found that men who had been administered the Zytiga/prednisone combination lived for 14.8 months on an average, vis-à-vis men who received a placebo and lived for 10.9 months.
 
Noting that J&J will likely be selling Zytiga – which will compete with Dendreon Corp.’s Provenge - for an average wholesale price of $5,000 per month, with typical treatments lasting eight months, a Wells Fargo analyst Larry Biegelsen said in a note to clients that the Zytiga drug is likely to generate up to $800 million in sales by the year 2015.
 
Biegelsen further added that insurers’ payments for abiraterone “will be fairly broad given the limited available treatment options and the reasonable pricing, which could lead to upside to J&J’s conservative 2011 guidance.”