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- 11/07/2017

FDA approves Roche drug for rare type of blood cancer

Pharma Horizon

Roche Holding AG got approval from US FDA to market its skin cancer drug Zelboraf for certain patients with Erdheim-Chester Disease, a rare type of blood cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Zelboraf to treat patients with Erdheim-Chester Disease whose cancer cells have a genetic mutation known as BRAF V600. It is the first FDA-approved treatment for the disease.

Zelboraf is already approved to treat melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, in patients whose cancer cells also contain a BRAF V600 mutation. Only 600 to 700 patients world-wide suffer from Erdheim-Chester Disease, and about 54 percent of those have the BRAF V600 mutation, the FDA said.

 

Source: Reuters