Bayer gains FDA approval for colon cancer drug

Bayer AG and Onyx Pharmaceuticals have won U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the drug regorafenib to treat progressive or metastatic colon cancer. The drug, which will be marketed under the name Stivarga, won approval after clinical trials in which patients treated with it lived on average 1.4 months longer than those who received standard treatment. It is the second drug for colorectal cancer to have been granted approval recently; Zaltrap, manufactured by Sanofi SA and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, received the FDA’s blessing in August. Industry leaders are buzzing somewhat over what seems to be a new, faster-track approval process on the part of the agency. Says one business analyst: “Someone has clearly lit a fire under the FDA. We’re seeing a fairly consistent pattern of drugs for high unmet-needs diseases being approved on an expedited basis.” Learn more from yahoo coverage of this story.