The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted breakthrough therapy designation for Roche’s alectinib based on data that will be presented at European Cancer Congress (ECC), according to the company. Despite significant recent advances, patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) still frequently develop resistance to available treatment and their disease relapses. A number of patients develop new tumours in the brain because many anti-cancer therapies have difficulty crossing the blood-brain barrier. At ECC, encouraging efficacy and safety data in patients with metastatic NSCLC that has progressed on crizotinib will be presented for alectinib, a promising investigational 2nd generation ALK inhibitor, in a late breaking report.
Alectinib was created by Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., a member of the Roche group.
In addition, Roche announced today that new data for several of its established and other investigational cancer medicines will be presented at the ECC in Amsterdam between September 27 to October 1, 2013. Roche medicines will be featured in more than 138 scientific presentations. The data presented come from 18 Roche medicines that are directed against a broad range of therapeutic targets.
“At ECC this year we will present important updates for both investigational and approved medicines,” said Hal Barron MD, chief medical officer and head of Global Product Development at Roche. “These data reflect our commitment to develop new targeted anti-cancer medicines as well as to explore how our approved medicines, such as Zelboraf, Avastin and Herceptin, can benefit more patients.”
Date: September 23, 2013
Source: Roche
