• 9/30/2006
  • New Delhi, India
  • staff
  • The Hindu (www.hindu.com)

For patients suffering from head and neck cancer, there is a new hope as a new therapy drug will be soon hitting the market.

The cancer drug, Erbitux, got a clearance from the Drugs Controller General of India yesterday.

“We got the clearance yesterday. It is an enormous step forward, providing more patients with the potential for a long term benefit,” said Marek Dziki, the Managing Director of Merck Specialities that had also launched last month another cancer drug that treats colon cancer.

He said it is the first and only monoclonal antibody to get an approval for the treatment of head and neck cancer by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency.

Head and neck cancer is very common in India because of the widespread habit of chewing tobacco and tobacco-related products.

There are an estimated 3.5 million cancer patients in India. Every year around 8,00,000 cases are diagnosed every year, out of which 2,00,000 are head and neck cancer cases.

According to Shyam Agarwal, chairperson of the medical oncology department in Sir Gangaram Hospital, the drug represents an important new option for so many patinets who are fighting head and neck cancer, a seious disease for which there is a tremendous unmet medical need.

“In combination with radiotherapy, the drug provides a significant enhancemet in survival. This is a hallmark development.”

The drug is for all those whose cancer has not spread to other body parts.

“It is the first molecule in 30 years to be approved both in the US as well as in the European Union for the treatment of head and neck cancer,” said Dziki. In the US, it got the clearance in March this year.

Any drug that is sold in India is first cleared by the Drug authority that conducts tests to see whether it would meet the requirements of the population.