Eisai's Halaven gains French reimbursement; disappointing new research

Japanese drug major Eisai’s (TYO: 4523) 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, has received reimbursement approval from the French health authorities.

Prior therapy should have included two common types of chemotherapy, an anthracycline and a taxane, unless patients were not suitable for these treatments. Eribulin is the first, single-agent chemotherapy to demonstrate a prolonged overall survival in patients with heavily pre-treated advanced breast cancer, compared to other single agent chemotherapies, says Eisai, which received European marketing approval for the drug last Year (The Pharma Letter march 25, 2011). More recently Halaven gained backing from the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), the supreme decision-making body of the self-governing medical system in Germany (TPL April 23).

Breast cancer is the most common cancer amongst women in France, accounting for 35.5% of all cancers and has the highest mortality rate of all cancers in France. Information on French cancer statistics from The Federation Nationale des Centres de Lutte Contre le Cancer, estimate that there are about 13,400 new cases of metastatic breast cancer every year in France. It is estimated that up to 7,400 patients will be able to benefit from eribulin per year in France, and the new drug is already being used in a number of key cancer treatment institutions.