Rituxan’s Expanded Use OKd
Genentech Inc. and Biogen Idec Inc. on Tuesday said U.S. regulators had approved their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma drug Rituxan as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
The drug was approved in combination with methotrexate for patients with moderatelyto-severely active rheumatoid arthritis who had failed to get adequate relief from previous treatments involving at least one other medicine.
Analysts have said the added indication could significantly expand sales of Rituxan despite competition in the crowded rheumatoid arthritis market. South San Francisco-based Genentech recorded U.S. Rituxan sales of $1.83 billion in 2005.
Geoff Porges, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said he expected the rheumatoid arthritis indication to add about $400 million to annual U.S. sales of Rituxan.
The drug was approved in 1997 to treat a slowly developing form of lymphoma in patients who had received other treatment and relapsed.
The companies received an expanded approval last month for Rituxan as an initial treatment in combination with standard chemotherapy for a faster-growing form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
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