AZ wins expert panel support for lung cancer drug

AstraZeneca's Iressa, given up for dead by some analysts, has won a key European endorsement from an expert panel of the EMEA.

The panel voted to support the approval of the cancer drug for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, whose tumors have an EGFR mutation. And the European Commission is likely to follow suit with a formal approval in a matter of weeks.

As Reuters notes, Iressa has failed to gain much traction outside Japan after a late-stage trial failed to show significant benefit for an overall population of lung cancer patients. If it makes a comeback now, analysts say the drug could offer some real competition to Tarceva.

- check out the report from Reuters