Eisai launches cancer drug Halaven in UK
pharmafile | April 20, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Eisai, Halaven, breast cancer
Eisai’s sea sponge derived breast cancer drug Halaven has been launched in the UK following approval from European regulators a month ago.
It will be used to treat patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have already had at least two common types of chemotherapy, an anthracycline and a taxane.
Halaven (eribulin) is an injectable non-taxane, microtubule dynamics inhibitor. It is also a halichondrin, a natural product isolated from the marine sponge Halichondria okadai, and is believed to work by inhibiting cancer cell growth.
Current treatments for advanced metastatic breast cancer include Roche’s Xeloda, in combination with docetaxel, following the failure of anthracycline-containing chemotherapy.
The advent of the Japanese company’s first-in-class, single treatment option has been welcomed by health charities as giving another hope for patients in what is seen as a limited field.
“The UK launch of eribulin is a step towards a drug being made available to these patients which could help give them precious extra time,” said Breast Cancer Care clinical nurse specialist Maria Leadbeater.
In the phase III EMBRACE trial, Halaven increased overall survival to 13.1 months versus 10.6 months for patients on the physician’s choice of drugs – a median of 2.5 months.
After the UK, it is expected to be launched in other northern European countries, including Germany following its European approval in March. Halaven was also approved in the US by the FDA on the same licence in November.
Such international regulatory success has been vital for Eisai, which is trying to shore itself up against the forthcoming patent loss on Alzheimer’s drug Aricept, its biggest-selling brand.
That loss of exclusivity is forcing the company to cut its US workforce by 20% as it seeks to shed 900 jobs globally by 2016.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with 1 in 8 women at risk of the disease during their lives: in 2008, almost 47,700 women were diagnosed.
Adam Hill
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