EU approval for Janssen's Sylvant to treat patients with MCD

The European Commission (EC) has approved the use of US health care giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) subsidiary Janssen-Cilag International's Sylvant (siltuximab) for the treatment of adult patients with multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD) who are human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) negative and human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) negative.

Sylvant is a monoclonal antibody (a specialized type of protein) that binds selectively to an antigen in the body called interleukin-6 (IL-6). Sylvant is administered as an intravenous (IV) infusion once every three weeks and is the first medicine to receive regulatory approval in the European Union for the treatment of MCD patients. The approval follows a  similar decision from the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year.

Important new therapeutic option