Eisai & Clinigen to bring breast cancer drug to South Africa
pharmafile | December 1, 2016 | News story | Business Services, Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Clinigen, Eisai, South Africa, breast cancer
Eisai and Clinigen have formed a collaboration to deliver the former’s cancer treatment Halaven (eribulin) to women in South Africa suffering from advanced breast cancer.
The drug has been registered by the Medicines Control Council (MCC) in the region for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer in patients who have previously completed at least two advanced regimens, noted as including anthracycline and a taxane, unless these proved unsuitable. Clinigen will distribute the drug in South Africa through Equity Pharma, a constituent of its Link Healthcare division.
As much as 7,000 women in South Africa are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, making it a large area of unmet medical need.
“Through our close partnership with Clinigen South Africa, Eisai will officially enter the South African market with the launch of eribulin and together we strive to make a meaningful difference to the lives of patients with advanced breast cancer,” announced Gary Hendler, the company’s chairman and CEO EMEA & global CCO, Oncology Business Group. “Eisai is dedicated to the discovery, development and production of innovative oncology therapies that can make a difference and impact the lives of patients and their families. This passion for people is part of Eisai’s human health care (hhc) mission, which strives to better understand the needs of patients and their families to increase the benefits health care provides.”
Clinigen’s group CEO Shaun Chilton also added: “This is the first distribution agreement of this kind for Clinigen following our acquisition of Link Healthcare in 2015, and marks the continuation of a successful relationship with Eisai. As partners in the distribution of eribulin, we can leverage our comprehensive South African distribution network and local expertise to deliver this important medicine to eligible women across the country, marking an important moment in the fight against advanced breast cancer in the region.”
Halaven has also hit the headlines recently as it became the first breast cancer drug recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in a decade to be used routinely on the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
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