Onyx and Bayer's Nexavar fails late-stage lung cancer trial

Blockbuster cancer drug Nexavar failed a late-stage trial in patients with a type of lung cancer.

South San Francisco-based Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.    (NASDAQ: ONXX) and partner Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals    said the Phase III trial of Nexavar tablets in patients with advanced relapsed or refractory non-squamous, non-small cell lung cancer did not show that patients given Nexavar would live longer.

The trial did show that those patients experienced an improvement in progression-free survival, or the time patients live without the disease worsening.