Cephalon, Inc. (CEPH) oncology product Treanda could see a significant rise in demand thanks to encouraging data presented at the recently conducted annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). Clinical data supporting the use of Treanda as a new standard of care in the first-line treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) was presented at ASH.

Data from an investigator-led proof-of-concept study demonstrated that newly diagnosed NHL patients who were treated with a combination of Treanda and Roche/Genentech‘s Rituxan experienced superior progression-free survival (55 months) compared to patients treated with the current standard of care, Rituxan plus a chemotherapy cocktail known as CHOP (35 months). The Rituxan-Treanda therapy was also found to be safer, less toxic and better tolerated.

Treanda is currently approved for the treatment of patients suffering from more advanced NHL and who are no longer responding to other therapies. Treanda is also approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

We believe the main potential for Treanda lies with the iNHL indication. According to the National Cancer Institute, about 63,000 new cases of NHL are diagnosed in the U.S. annually, 40-50% of which are iNHL. As a growing number of patients become regressive to treatment with Rituxan and other therapies, new treatments like Treanda could provide physicians with a much-needed treatment option.

Treanda sales would be significantly boosted if Cephalon succeeds in gaining approval for the product for the first-line treatment of NHL. However, in order to do so, Cephalon will have to conduct additional studies. In fact, a study is currently ongoing and positive results could lead to label expansion in 2011/2012.

We currently have a Neutral recommendation on Cephalon. We expect investor focus to remain on Cephalon’s emerging oncology pipeline, Amrix, and the conversion of patients to Nuvigil.

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