Liver Cancer: What's Close To The Market

16 Aug 2017

• By John Davis

The treatment of liver cancer will have a makeover in coming months, with several products including Bristol’s Opdivo nearing the market for a disease that is often diagnosed late and where previously there have been few meaningful advances in therapy for many years. Two recently published reports from Datamonitor Healthcare have reviewed the disease and the R&D pipeline for the condition.

Cirrhosis — A liver with cirrhosis • Source: Shutterstock

With Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) having a US FDA PDUFA date of Sept. 24, 2017, for use as a second-line therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and Eisai Co. Ltd.'s oral multiple receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, lenvatinib, submitted for US and European approval as first-line HCC therapy, announced on July 25, changes are afoot in this therapeutic area. (Also see "Lenvatinib HCC Results Give Sorafenib Cause To REFLECT?" - Scrip, 6 June, 2017.)

One change has just occurred: on Aug. 7, the German multinational Bayer AG announced the EU approval of Stivarga...