The five drugs included in the trial are ABT-888 or veliparib (being developed by Abott labs), AMG 655 or conatumumab and AMG 386 (being developed by Amgen) and CP-751, 871 or figitumumab and HKI-272 or neratinib (being developed by Pfizer). The group of these companies is negotiating with other ???pharma??™ companies to add their experimental drugs in this trial in order to speed up the whole process.

Patients from 20 cancer centers will receive the treatment after testing of biopsy from them. Before they go for surgery they will be treated with one of the trial drugs to check if the drug can control the spread of the cancer. Up to 12 drugs will be tested in the trial. Safeway Inc??™s charitable foundation is the major fund contributor with Johnson & Johnson, Roche AG subsidiary of Genentech and Eli Lilly as other contributors. The expected cost of the study is 26 million dollars.

If the study succeeds then it will be possible to treat patients with drugs that better match their needs and cost and time for new drug development will also be reduced.