Eisai debuts breast cancer drug Halaven in UK

Japanese drug major Eisai (TYO: 4523) has launched its Halaven (eribulin), a novel treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have progressed after at least two chemotherapeutic regimens for advanced disease is launched today in the UK. Prior therapy should have included two common types of chemotherapy, an anthracycline and a taxane, unless patients were not suitable for these treatments.

Discovered and developed by Eisai Halaven is a non-taxane, microtubule dynamics inhibitor and a synthetic analog of halichondrin B, a natural product isolated from the marine sponge Halichondria okadai. It is a new class of agent and the first, single-agent chemotherapy to demonstrate a statistically significant overall survival benefit in patients with heavily pre-treated advanced breast cancer compared to currently used treatments. Patients treated with Halaven survived a median of 2.5 months longer than patients who received treatment of physician’s choice (overall survival of 13.1 months versus 10.6 months, respectively, p=0.041).

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK. It accounts for around 16 % of female deaths from cancer, the second most common cause of female cancer death after lung cancer. 30% of women diagnosed with early or localized breast cancer will eventually relapse and develop metastatic or advanced disease.