New drug for Multiple Myeloma approved for use in India

EHM News Bureau - Mumbai

VELCADE® (bortezomib), a new line of treatment for multiple myeloma (blood cancer) has been approved for use in India. The Indian authorities have given permission for import of VELCADE® (bortezomib) which is expected to be available soon as regulatory formalities are completed. Multiple myeloma is cancer of the blood that is under-recognised and has no cure. It is the second most prevalent blood cancer after non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Although multiple myeloma represents only one per cent of all cancers, it represents 2 per cent of all cancer deaths.

"As physicians, we look forward to new therapies that will benefit patients. When multiple myeloma patients fail two previous line of treatment, their cancer is one of the most difficult to treat. But with VELCADE®, we are able to give them another option which, in many cases, can give them another chance at life," says Dr MB Agarwal, haemo-oncologist with Bombay Hospital, Lilavati Hospital and Breach Candy Hospital.

Most patients with multiple myeloma survive on an average for just three years. Only 30 per cent survive longer than five years. It has one of the lowest long-term survival rates (20 years) of all cancers. The World Health Organisation (WHO) research states that 73,943 people world wide developed multiple myeloma in 2000.

Bortezomib (VELCADE®), treats multiple myeloma patients who have received at least one prior treatment and demonstrated disease progression on their last therapy, the most difficult to treat patients. Bortezomib works by blocking the proteasome. Proteasomes are known as the cell's waste-disposers.

The response rates to bortezomib that were seen in clinical trials led to the US FDA approving bortezomib in May 2003. Health Canada too gave conditional approval for bortezomib on January 31, 2005 to be used in the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma when one previous cancer treatment has failed.