If this medicine doesn't pan out, the next competitor to Avastin is VEGF-Trap, a treatment that Sanofi is developing with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (nasdaq: REGN - news - people ).

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Industry officials are particularly excited because, unlike many existing drugs that are aimed at only a few tumors, VEGF-based drugs could prove to be broadly active against almost any cancer.

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And VEGF-Trap seemed to cause fewer bowel perforations, a big problem in the earlier Avastin study.

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The VEGF gene is so-called because it controls production of a substance known as vascular endothelial growth factor.

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Doctors will no doubt want to test Avastin and Erbitux in combination and may even add other drugs like AstraZeneca 's (nyse: AZN - news - people ) Iressa or a new VEGF pill being developed by Novartis.

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The more VEGF a tumor produces, the faster your cancer grows--and the sooner you die.

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On the FDA's Fast Track and in phase III testing is the company's BAY 43-9006, a small molecule RAF kinase and VEGF inhibitor that inhibits tumor growth for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (advanced kidney cancer).

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Results from a VEGF pill being developed by Novartis (nyse: NVS - news - people ), however, were disappointing.

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"This is a long-term quest, and we can't assume that blocking VEGF alone will be enough, " he says.

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Both Sugen and Genentech are rushing to conduct final-stage human testing of drugs that block the action of a key protein, called VEGF.

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