Roche's Zelboraf nearly doubles survival in majority of MM patients

Investigators from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) and 12 other centers in the USA and Australia have found that a new drug for patients with metastatic melanoma nearly doubled median overall survival.

The drug in question is Zelboraf (vemurafenib) from Swiss drug major Roche (ROG: SIX), which won approval for its product from both the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Commission last year (The Pharma Letters August 18 and December 19, 2011) and sponsored this latest study.

More than half of patients who were treated with vemurafenib responded to treatment and experienced an impressive median overall survival of nearly 16 months – far longer than the typical survival of just six to 10 months for most patients whose melanoma has spread beyond the initial tumor site.