Roche's CEO on Profit Pipeline

 Highlight transcript below to create clipTranscript:  Print  |  Email Go  Click text to jump within videoFri 01 Feb 13 | 07:31 AM ET Severin Schwan, Roche CEO, discusses the company's future growth plans developing innovative medicines to fight the battle against cancer and Alzheimer disease.

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FDA approves new use for Roche's Avastin in colon cancer treatment

Jan 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the use of Roche's Avastin for patients whose colorectal cancer has worsened despite previous treatment with the drug.

The new use will allow patients first treated with Avastin plus chemotherapy to be treated again with the biotechnology drug in combination with a different chemotherapy regimen.

A pivotal clinical trial showed that such a treatment strategy improved survival.

"The majority of people diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer receive Avastin plus chemotherapy as their initial treatment," Hal Barron, chief medical officer at Roche's Genentech unit, said in a statement. "These people now have the option to continue with Avastin plus a new chemotherapy after their cancer worsens, which may help them live longer than changing to the new chemotherapy alone."

Avastin, also known as bevacizumab, is an antibody that blocks vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, a protein tumors need to grow nutrient-providing blood vessels.

The drug is approved in the United States for treating glioblastoma, a brain tumor, and colorectal, lung and kidney cancers.

Worldwide Avastin sales totaled $5.3 billion Swiss francs ($5.5 billion) in 2011.

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FDA approves Roche's Tamiflu for infants with new flu symptoms

Dec 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday expanded the use of Tamiflu, the flu drug from Roche , to children as young as two weeks old who have shown flu symptoms for no more than two days.

The FDA said the drug cannot be used to prevent flu infection in this age group. The drug is currently approved as both a flu treatment and preventative flu drug for children ages 1 and older, and adults. It aims to help lessen the length and severity of the flu.

Tamiflu was approved in 1999 and is distributed in the United States by Genentech, part of Roche. It was co-developed by Gilead Sciences. Its most common side effects include vomiting and diarrhea.

The FDA said its expanded use is based on extrapolating data from previous study results in adults and older children, and supporting studies by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Roche.

Tamiflu, which had peak sales of $3 billion in 2009 because of the H1N1 swine flu epidemic, is approved by regulators worldwide but some researchers claim there is little evidence it works and have asked Roche to hand over data so they can study its effectiveness.

(Reporting By Caroline Humer; Editing by Grant McCool)

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