Roche Receives EU Advisory Committee OK for Expanded Use of Its Cancer Drug Avastin
Roche reports that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency recommended that the European Commission approve the use of Avastin (bevacizumab) in combination with chemotherapy as a treatment for women with ovarian cancer that is resistant to platinum-containing chemotherapy.
Avastin was initially approved in the United States for advanced colorectal cancer in 2004, then making it the first anti-angiogenic therapy made widely available for the treatment of patients with an advanced cancer.
Avastin is approved in Europe for the treatment of advanced stages of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, kidney cancer and ovarian cancer, and is available in the US for the treatment of colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and kidney cancer. In addition, Avastin is approved in the US and over 60 other countries worldwide for the treatment of patients with progressive glioblastoma following prior therapy. Avastin is approved in Japan for the treatment of the advanced stages of colorectal, non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and malignant glioma, including newly diagnosed glioblastoma.
Source: Roche