Friday, July 20, 2012

EU agency backs Takeda and J&J drugs; snubs Celgene

LONDON (Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency said on Friday an expert committee had recommended approval of new blood cancer drugs from Takeda and Johnson & Johnson, but not one from Celgene.

Europe's drugs watchdog gave a green light to Takeda's Adcetris treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma and systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma, alongside Johnson & Johnson's Dacogen medicine for acute myeloid leukaemia.

Celgene, however, got a negative recommendation for Istodax, its treatment for peripheral T-cell lymphoma. The U.S. biotech said it would request a re-examination.

The regulator also backed wider use of Abbott Laboratories' top-selling Humira -- expected to be the world's biggest-selling medicine in 2012 -- for moderate Crohn's disease.

Recommendations for drug approvals by the EMA are normally endorsed by the European Commission within a couple of months.

As previously reported, the agency's expert committee also recommended the first gene therapy drug and a new lung cancer pill from Pfizer at its regular monthly meeting.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Chris Wickham)



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