As was confirmed by the company on Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration has awarded its approval to Roche Holding's Acterma drug, which has been developed to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
The medicine, manufactured by Roche's Genentech unit, already has approval for use and marketing in Europe and Japan and is expected by the firm to be yet another blockbuster product.
As per the FDA approval, the drug can be used for the treatment of adults who suffer from moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis and have failed to respond sufficiently to another class of biotech medicines which are designed to block an inflammatory protein called Tumor Necrosis Factor.
Acterma, which will compete with Roche's own Rituxan, works different from TNF blocker medicines like Humira, sold by Abbott Laboratories and Johnson & Johnson's Remicade.
The newly approved medicine can either be used alone or in combination with methotrexate or other anti-rheumatic drugs.
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