Roche nabs front­line OK for Avastin/Tecen­triq in com­mon liv­er can­cer, best­ing an old Bay­er drug

For the first time in 12 years, the FDA has ap­proved a new front­line treat­ment for the most com­mon form of liv­er can­cer.

The agency okayed a com­bi­na­tion of Roche’s an­ti-VEGF an­ti­body Avastin and their im­munother­a­py Tecen­triq for pa­tients with un­re­sectable or metasta­t­ic he­pa­to­cel­lu­lar car­ci­no­ma (HCC). The ap­proval comes two weeks af­ter Roche and their big biotech sub Genen­tech pub­lished Phase III re­sults show­ing the com­bo im­proved both pro­gres­sion-free sur­vival and, cru­cial­ly, helped pa­tients live longer than the long-run­ning stan­dard-of-care, Bay­er’s Nex­avar.

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