• 4/17/2006
  • Bangalore, India
  • staff
  • sify.com

Biotech major Biocon today said it expected its drug for head and neck cancer to hit the market by the end of the current financial year.

“It (the drug hitting the market) should hopefully be by the end of this year”, Biocon Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw told reporters here.

Mazumdar-Shaw said BIOMAb EGFR, a monoclonal antibody for the treatment of solid tumours of epithelial origin such as head and neck cancer, had gone through the required clinical development time-line.

“It’s now for the regulators to look at the data and approve it. We are just in the process of compiling the data and filing it (before regulators for approval). We will file it in the next month”, she said.

According to Biocon officials, the drug is engineered to specifically target and block the epidermal growth factor receptor responsible for the proliferation of cancer cells.

“BIOMAb EGFR will spearhead Biocon Pharmaceutical’s foray into proprietary products for cancer therapy”, they said. “It is estimated that the incidence of new cancer cases in India is about 700,000 annually of which nearly 2,30,000 are tobacco-related and occur in the head and neck region”.

Earlier today, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram inaugurated Biocon Biopharmaceuticals, the company’s multi-product biologics facility on the city outskirts.

Biocon said monoclonal antibodies are emerging as the fastest growing segment, especially in oncology and auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and lupus.