This is a big deal for any drugmaker or biotech that wants to make it in cancer. The annual American Society of Clinical Oncology conference begins tomorrow, with oodles of data being presented. The Motley Fool was kind enough to identify a few of the more interesting rivalries that will play out. Here they are:

Millennium vs. Celgene

This duel hasn’t yet produced a clear winner over compounds to treat multiple myeloma, and potentially other cancers. At ASCO, both Millennium and Celgene will present massive amounts of data on Velcade and Revlimid, respectively, plus Celgene’s other myeloma compound Thalomid. Most interesting will be the numerous abstracts Celgene will present on Revlimid’s use in lymphomas and early studies in solid tumors, which could open the door to on-label usage of the drug in many new patient groups.

ImClone vs. Amgen

The battle between ImClone’s Erbitux and Amgen’s Vectibix is clearly being won by Erbitux. ImClone already announced Erbitux has succeeded in a clinical study in an earlier setting for colorectal cancer. However, Amgen halted a Vectibix study since patients taking it in a front-line setting with other cancer compounds were doing worse than patients not on the drug. At ASCO, more than 60 Erbitux-related abstracts will be presented, including positive front-line metastatic colorectal cancer study data and a failed pancreatic cancer trial. Amgen will present seven pieces of clinical data for Vectibix.

Onyx vs. Pfizer

Both Onyx’s Nexavar and Pfizer’s Sutent have some of the same cancer cell targets, are small molecule compounds, and are indicated as treatments for kidney cancer. Since the drugs’ profiles are very similar, the label-expanding clinical trials and data will be very important in determining which one becomes the long-term standard of care for many cancers.

Onyx desperately needs to release more positive Nexavar data at ASCO. Sutent was only approved in January of last year, but thanks to good efficacy data, sales have nearly doubled Nexavar’s totals - and halted Nexavar’s U.S. sales growth. On the other hand, Nexavar produced such good results as a treatment for liver cancer that Onyx and its partner Bayer recently ended a study.

At ASCO, Onyx plans on releasing the data from this liver cancer study and its failed phase 3 myeloma study that was announced in November. Keep an eye out for safety data from these studies and other Nexavar clinical trials, the Fool advises, and compare them with Sutent results to see which compound has the better adverse event profile, since this will affect sales of the drugs in kidney cancer as well.

Source: The Motley Fool