Boehringer's Vargatef gains approval in EU for lung cancer

The European Commission has granted EU marketing authorization for German family-owned pharma major Boehringer Ingelheim’s Vargatef (nintedanib), valid for the 28 countries within the European Union.

Vargatef in combination with docetaxel is indicated for use in adult patients with locally advanced, metastatic or locally recurrent non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of adenocarcinoma tumor histology, after first-line chemotherapy.

“The approval of nintedanib offers a much needed new treatment option for adult lung cancer patients with advanced adenocarcinoma in the second-line setting,” commented Martin Reck, head of department of Thoracic Oncology, Lung Clinic Grosshansdorf, Germany and lead investigator of the LUME-Lung 1 trial. “The clinical data has shown that patients receiving nintedanib plus docetaxel experienced over one year overall survival with no further compromise to their quality of life, compared to docetaxel alone,” he added.