According to a new research, Sanofi-Aventis's chemotherapy drug Jevtana, enhances survival chances by 30% in men suffering from prostate cancer, whose tumors do not react to normal treatment.

Although Sanofi had already said that Jevtana, or cabazitaxel, had achieved its target in the 755-patient test, analysts were waiting to look at the details.

Study Leader, Oliver Sartor of Tulane Cancer Center in New Orleans said, “The ‘unequivocal’ survival benefit gave hope to men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer whose disease continues to grow despite standard chemotherapy”.

Patients, who were given Jevtana and the older drug prednisone in the test, lived for about 15.1 months, while those on the mitoxantrone and prednisone survived 12.7 months.

7.5% patients on Jevtana, however, reported fever with decline in white blood cell count against 1.3% of those on mitoxantrone.

The company is waiting for approval from U. S. regulators and is currently submitting data from the studies for FDA review. Jevtana is expected to storm the market later this year. It is anticipated that it will yield worldwide sales of $295 million by 2014.

Analysts think that the new drug will possibly get a similar price to Taxotere, another cancer medicine, at around $2,500 per round of treatment.