Roche receives conditional EU approval for Erivedge

Roche has announced that its new skin cancer drug Erivedge has been granted a conditional approval by the European Commission.

The drug has been ratified for the treatment of adult patients with symptomatic metastatic basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or locally advanced BCC inappropriate for surgery or radiotherapy, making it the first available treatment for this disfiguring form of skin cancer.

A conditional approval is granted to products with a positive benefit/risk assessment that satisfy an unmet medical need and can offer a significant public health benefit, with Roche set to provide additional data on the drug from an ongoing safety study.

The European Commission's decision falls in line with the recommendation given by the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use earlier this year.

Dr Hal Barron, Roche's chief medical officer and head of global product development, said: "Today's approval is great news for patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma, who previously had no medicines to treat their disease."