FDA approves Avastin to treat breast cancer

WASHINGTON The Food and Drug Administration’s Division of Biologic Oncology Products has approved to treat breast cancer Genentech’s Avastin, which is already approved to treat metastatic colorectal cancer and advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

The new indication for the drug is, for the treatment of patients who have not received chemotherapy for metastatic HER2 negative breast cancer. The drug is to be used in its new treatment with the breast cancer drug Taxol, manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

This comes after Genentech submitted a study to the FDA stating that the drug, when used with Taxol delayed the growth of a patient’s tumor for 11.3 months, 5.5 months longer than when Taxol was used alone.

This new approval could bring Genentech as much as $2 billion per year for the company.