Boston, MA 04/29/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Today, Cell Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CTIC) introduced its PIXUVRI® (pixantrone) at the 54th yearly scientific meeting of the British Society for Haematology. PIXUVRI® is the first latest treatment to be available in the United Kingdom that is aimed at treating refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (aggressive B-cell NHL) or multiply relapsedadult patients.
PIXUVRI A First Therapy In The UK
PIXUVRI is the first and foremost monotherapy treatment choice for the adult patient age-group and is the only licensed therapy meant for third and fourth line use in aggressive B-cell NHL patients, and is inclusive of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). According to the estimates by the company, every year there are round about 37,000 fresh cases recorded of aggressive B-cell NHL in the European Union (EU). The company projects that every year nearly 1,600 -1,800 people in the United Kingdom alone are diagnosed with aggressive B-cell NHL. Moreover, patients with aggressive B-cell NHL, who witness recurrence of the symptoms after the second-line treatment have a weak survival period, which ranges from several weeks to one year.
Effective With Controllable Side-effects
Professor Finbarr E. Cotter, who is a Haematology Professor, noted that the accessibility of PIXUVRI in the U.K. is a significant breakthrough foraggressive B-cell NHL patients. He added that among all, DLBCL is the most widespread type of aggressive NHL and even after lot of advancement attained in developing first-line therapy over the last ten years, for the disease, it still holds a high probability of relapse in patients. Therefore, in this scenario, PIXUVRI offers itself as a real hope for the patients, who did not respond to second or third line therapies. Moreover, the new therapy has minimal and manageable side effects as against other therapies, and at the same time, it delivers effective treatment.
The unveiling of PIXUVRI in the UK follows the conditional marketing consent by the European Commission (EC) in 2012, which was later followed by a final guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence endorsing PIXUVRI as a cost-efficienttherapy in the beginning of 2014. At present, PIXUVRI is obtainable in Denmark, Austria, Finland, Italy, Germany, France, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. Cell Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CTIC) has plans to extend the accessibility of PIXUVRI in other countries of the European continent as well in 2014.
