Biocon launches anti-cancer drug in Abu Dhabi

New Delhi, Oct 10: Biocon Ltd, country's leading healthcare company, Friday said it has launched the cancer drug Abraxane in partnership with the Abu Dhabi-based pharmaceutical firm Neopharma in that Gulf nation.

Abraxane can be used for treatment of breast cancer after failure of a combination therapy for metastatic disease or relapse within six months of chemotherapy.

"The drug is going to change the way breast cancer is treated through chemotherapy as it is a combination of chemotherapy and a biotech formulation," Biocon chairman and managing director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said in a statement.

"As it uses nanotechnology and a protein, it allows you to deliver a very cyto-toxic agent in a very targeted way to the tumour and will hence make a huge difference to cancer patients," Shaw said in the statement.

Abraxane is approved for marketing in 35 countries and has several pending patent applications in India relating to it.