Cork firm to produce new cancer drug

A BREAST cancer drug which reportedly prolongs the lives of women in advanced stages of the condition is to be produced in Cork after pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline received an EU licence for the treatment.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced that the European Commission has granted a conditional marketing authorisation for Tyverb otherwise known as Lapatinib, the first oral, small molecule dual targeted therapy, for all 27 EU member states.

It is thought Lapatinib could be as successful as Herceptin, the gold-standard treatment for breast cancer. The drug has been shown in clinical trials to slow the progression of advanced breast cancer by more than 50%.