Boehringer Ingelheim receives EU approval for lung cancer drug

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced that its new lung cancer therapy Giotrif (afatinib) has received European regulatory approval.

The European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for afatinib monotherapy in the treatment of TKI-naive adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with activating EGFR mutations.

In clinical trials, the drug has been shown to delay tumour progression and improve disease-related symptoms versus standard chemotherapy, and is currently also being trialled as a therapy for head and neck cancer.

This is the first registration of a targeted treatment from Boehringer Ingelheim's oncology portfolio in the EU.

Professor Klaus Dugi, corporate senior vice-president for medicine at the company, said: "We are delighted with the decision by the European Commission. We hope this will be the first of many registrations for drugs from our in-house oncology research programme."

The drug is scheduled for launch later this year and is expected to be a key driver of continued commercial growth for Boehringer Ingelheim during the remainder of 2013.