Pharmion Corp.’s Vidaza helped patients live longer with a rare bone-marrow disorder that can lead to leukemia, researchers said Monday.
Patients who took Vidaza in a study lived a median 24.4 months, compared with 15 months for people on chemotherapy or best supportive care for a high-risk form of myelodysplastic syndrome, known as MDS, researchers said at the American Society of Hematology meeting in Atlanta.
The evidence that Vidaza can prolong lives was one reason Celgene Corp. agreed to pay $2.9 billion last month to acquire Pharmion, based in Boulder.
An estimated 12,000 to 15,000 people get the high-risk form of the disease each year, the company said. There is no cure other than bone-marrow transplants, which are rarely done.
Vidaza was approved in the U.S. in 2004 based on evidence it could shrink tumors.
