Genentech's Avastin Gets Faster OK for Brain Cancer

Updated from 10:18 a.m. EDT

Genentech reported Wednesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had granted accelerated approval of its drug Avastin to treat a type of brain cancer.

According to Genentech, which was recently acquired by Roche, the FDA has granted accelerated approval of Avastin for people with glioblastoma with progressive disease following prior therapy. The FDA's accelerated approval program allows provisional approval of medicines for cancer or other life-threatening diseases. An FDA panel recommended Avastin for speedier review in March.

"After so many years with little progress in this field, Avastin was associated with a durable tumor response and doctors now have a new medicine to offer patients," said Dr. Timothy Cloughesy, director of the neuro-oncology program at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a press release.

Genentech said it would soon enroll patients in a global phase III trial evaluating Avastin in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.

Avastin, which generated $2.69 billion in U.S. revenue in 2008, is already approved to treat some types of colon, breast and lung cancer. Last month Genentech said the drug failed to stop early-stage colon cancer. The company said in March that sales of Avastin could reach $10 billion by 2015. However, for sales to keep growing, analysts have said, the drug will need additional FDA approvals.

Glioblastoma is an aggressive, deadly and tenacious form of brain cancer that according to Genentech affects roughly 10,000 each year.

Know What You Own: Genentech's drugs compete with those from biotech firms such as Amgen(AMGN Quote), Biogen Idec(BIIB Quote), Genzyme(GENZ Quote), Gilead Sciences(GILD Quote) and Dendreon(DNDN Quote).