Boehringer Ingelheim receives CHMP backing for lung cancer drug

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced that its new lung cancer therapy nintedanib has been recommended for EU approval by the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP).

The compound has been endorsed for use in combination with docetaxel for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced, metastatic or locally recurrent non-small cell lung cancer of adenocarcinoma tumour histology after first-line chemotherapy.

Results from the LUME-Lung 1 study showed that the product offers survival benefits for a patient population that typically has a very poor prognosis.

If approved, Boehringer Ingelheim intends to distribute the drug under the brand name Vargatef.

Professor Klaus Dugi, chief medical officer of Boehringer Ingelheim, said: "Nintedanib – a triple angiokinase inhibitor – when added to docetaxel provided adenocarcinoma patients with a median overall survival of over one year, a benefit which has not been achieved before."

This comes after the firm allied with CureVac earlier this month to develop an investigational therapeutic lung cancer vaccine called CV9202.