• 9/23/2006
  • Paris, France
  • staff
  • Forbes.com

Sanofi-Aventis said its Taxotere drug received a positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) in Europe for the treatment of patients with inoperable advanced head and neck cancer.

Following the CHMP review, the positive opinion for the new application will be transmitted to the European Commission.

The treatment, by injection, in combination with a classic treatment of the condition with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil, was found in a study to prolong median survival among patients to 18.6 months from 14.5 with the classic treatment.

Very few treatment options are currently available for patients with head and neck cancer, Sanofi quoted Dr Jan B Vermorken, Head of Oncology at University Hospital Antwerp, who led the study, as saying.

He said the study is the first to identify a chemotherapy treatment preceding the main treatment that extended life for patients with inoperable head and neck cancer.

This additional application for Taxotere is also currently under priority review by the US Food and Drug Administration.