US approves new anti-leukaemia drug

A new oral drug to treat chronic myeloid leukaemia has been approved in record time by the US Food and Drug Administration. At a news conference in Washington, DC, attended by the US secretary of health and human services, Tommy Thompson, and the director of the National Cancer Institute, Dr Richard Klausner, the administration announced its approval of imatinib mesylate (Gleevec). The new drug, manufactured by Novartis of Basle, Switzerland, was approved after a review of the clinical data lasting only two and a half months. The drug has also proved effective against rare gastrointestinal stromal tumours …