PharmaMar's Yondelis filed with EMEA

Spain's PharmaMar, a subsidiary of the Zeltia group, says it has submitted a Marketing Authorization Application to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) for Yondelis (trabectedin), which requests approval for the drug's use in the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas.

STS is a rare disease that represents around 1% of adult, and 7% of pediatric cancers, worldwide. In excess of 50% of those who are diagnosed with STS will die from the condition within five years. Current treatment options are based around the surgical removal of the therapy-resistant tumors which characterize the illness.

The product, which was originally isolated from the marine tunicate Ecteinscidia turbinata, has been developed by the Madrid-headquartered company in partnership with global health care major Johnson & Johnson, and has demonstrated unique anticancer properties via its interaction with the DNA repair mechanism.