Marketing nod sought for new leukaemia drug

An application to market imatinib (also known as Gilvec or STI571) has been lodged with the Ministry of Health. The drug could be available this year.

Novartis filed applications for imatinib in the US in February and in the European Union and Switzerland in March.

On March 26, based on early trial results, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted imatinib a priority review for possible use as a treatment of patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia in the blast interferon-alpha therapy.

The FDA grants priority reviews for products that may significantly improve available treatments.