Great Britain approves subcutaneous Tecentriq weeks ahead of expected US decision

Pa­tients in Great Britain who take IV Tecen­triq now have a quick­er op­tion.

The coun­try’s reg­u­la­to­ry au­thor­i­ty has ap­proved a sub­cu­ta­neous ver­sion of ate­zolizum­ab, bet­ter known as Roche’s block­buster im­munother­a­py Tecen­triq. The new ver­sion takes just sev­en min­utes to ad­min­is­ter, as op­posed to 30 to 60 min­utes for the IV for­mu­la­tion, Roche an­nounced on Tues­day.

The news comes weeks ahead of an ex­pect­ed de­ci­sion in the US on Sept. 15, ex­ec­u­tives said on the com­pa­ny’s re­cent Q2 earn­ings call per an Al­phaSense tran­script. In Great Britain, Tecen­triq SC’s la­bel cov­ers all the same in­di­ca­tions as the IV for­mu­la­tion and will be avail­able “in the com­ing weeks,” a spokesper­son told End­points News. The EU’s reg­u­la­to­ry au­thor­i­ty is cur­rent­ly con­sid­er­ing the drug’s use, in­clud­ing in North­ern Ire­land.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.