Eli Lilly lung cancer treatment receives European approval

Eli Lilly has announced that Alimta (pemetrexed) has received approval in Europe for histologically-based use in the first-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Alimta has been approved as a combination treatment with cisplatin as a first-line treatment for patients with the most common form of lung cancer who have other than predominantly squamous cell histology.

This marks the third approval for pemetrexed in Europe and follows the issuing of a positive opinion from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency in February.

Approval for the compound was based on a phase III study comparing the drug plus cisplatin to Gemzar (gemcitabine HCl) plus cisplatin.

Prior to this approval, all NSCLC histologies were treated similarly.

Richard Gaynor, vice-president of cancer research and global oncology platform leader for Eli Lilly, said: “This approval opens the door for a novel, tailored approach based on histology or tissue type.”

He added his hopes that the study will give doctors a robust tool for selecting the appropriate drug to treat patients in order to achieve the best possible results.

In September 2007, Eli Lilly argued that histology could play a key role in determining who would benefit most from treatment with Alimta.