Roche, AbbVie combined therapy shows promise in leukemia treatment

Switzerland based pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG and AbbVie Inc, a U.S. biopharmaceutical firm, have recently announced that their targeted therapy delayed the growth of a category of blood and bone marrow cancer. Apparently, the therapy was utilized in combination with a cancer drug produced by the Swiss drugmaker in a late-stage trial. In the announcement, the companies said that the drug Venclexta was used with Roche’s Gazyva, which is an anti-cancer chemotherapy drug from the company. It showed a statistically remarkable depletion in the risk of disease getting worse or death in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in comparison to the standard of care, Roche confirmed. Michael Severino, Chief Scientific Officer of AbbVie, said that the results displayed the potential of Venclexta as a fixed duration treatment for patients with CLL. These results could also serve as the basis to expand into first-line treatment, he added. Chief Medical Officer of Roche, Sandra Horning, said in a statement that patients with CLL continuously need more treatment options due to the fact that some of them are not able to tolerate the course of chemotherapies owing to their underlying health. Horning mentioned that CLL14 is the first study which displays superior, free of progression survival for Venclexta along with Gazyva in comparison to the standard of care procedures. The company and health authorities will work together with the aim of bringing this treatment option, which is potentially free from chemotherapy, as soon as possible to people needing it, she further stated. The Swiss drugmaker reportedly stated that more than 20,000 patients are anticipated to be diagnosed with CLL in 2018 in the United States. Meanwhile, the industry could also witness the growth of Venclexta into acute myeloid leukemia (AML) next year, after it was filed for approval in this summer.