Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) needs all the goods news it can get.  While the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has its annual meeting in les than two weeks and while that is expected to be THE biotech event of year, Dendreon is out with presentation news at the American Urological Association today.

Dendreon released new data looking at PROVENGE’s ability to increase overall survival in a study that was targeted solely at evaluating this in African American men who suffer from advanced prostate cancer.

The news looks solid if there are no “issues” that will be taken with the data.  Dendreon said that the new analysis found that the African American population in its study had a median overall survival benefit of 45.3 months.  This is significant if you compare the results to only 14.6 months as a median overall survival benefit in the control arm.  In short, PROVENGE extended median survival for African American men by 30.7 months.

Dendreon is one of the feature companies at ASCO’s 2012 Annual Meeting this year that is out in less than two weeks.  We would expect more results, but the trick is whether or not other companies will trump Dendreon or not.  The case so far has been that Dendreon has been ineffective in generating sales to the point that it has expected and the numbers seem to keep softening.  Physician use and acceptance is supposed to be wider, but that $93,000 cost may be prohibitive.

Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) is up 2.75% at $7.47, and its 52-week trading range is $6.46 to $42.87.

JON C. OGG

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