VELCADE(R) (bortezomib) for Injection Incorporated Into NCCN(R) Clinical Practice Guidelines for Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma
Tuesday December 12, 4:01 pm ET
[I think Dunsire et al. are doing a damn good job of milking as much as possible out of the Velcade-franchise. She seems to be exceptionally focused.]
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MLNM - News) today announced that VELCADE® (bortezomib) for Injection, the only single agent to demonstrate a survival benefit in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma (MM), has been added to the updated National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) treatment protocol for newly diagnosed MM patients. These practice guidelines are a benchmark for clinical policy in the oncology community. The guidelines are updated continually in a process with explicit review of the evidence by multidisciplinary panels of expert physicians from NCCN member institutions. NCCN has posted the updated information to their website at nccn.org.
"A major addition to the guidance is the inclusion of bortezomib as front-line therapy for multiple myeloma, an addition based on data from 12 Phase II clinical trials in more than 600 patients," said Kenneth C. Anderson, M.D., Kraft Family Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and NCCN Multiple Myeloma Cancer Guidelines Panel Chair.
"The inclusion of VELCADE in the NCCN guidelines is critical to helping improve the outcomes of newly diagnosed patients," said Nancy Simonian, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Millennium. "The complete response rates we've seen in emerging data thus far with VELCADE in the front-line multiple myeloma setting and our three, large, registration-enabling Phase III studies currently ongoing in this treatment setting, add to the growing data supporting VELCADE as the backbone of therapy in all lines of therapy."
VELCADE is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of MM patients who have received at least one prior therapy. It is the market leader in the U.S. with over 50,000 patients treated worldwide and the only single agent with an unmatched median survival of 29.8 months in patients who have received one to three prior therapies. The Company, together with co-development partner Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C., currently has three, large international Phase III trials underway evaluating VELCADE based combinations in newly diagnosed patients. Collectively, these studies are anticipated to enroll approximately 2,000 patients.
The NCCN guidelines are distributed free of charge to clinical professionals in the United States and internationally. User-friendly patient versions of NCCN guidelines are available to patients and their families. For more information, call the NCCN at (215) 690-0300 or visit nccn.org. |
