EC approval for Megrahi cancer drug

A CANCER charity yesterday welcomed the European Commission’s approval of a new prostate cancer drug which is being used to treat the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.

Abiraterone acetate, which has the brand name Zytiga, was approved by the European Medicines Agency and is now being considered for use in England and Wales by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

If the medication is deemed cost and clinically effective, the NHS will be obliged to fund it. In Scotland the Scottish Medicines Consortium would be expected to make it available to patients north of the Border.

Sarah Woolnough, director of policy at Cancer Research UK, said: “We’re very pleased to see that abiraterone has been licensed for use. Once approved, abiraterone could help improve survival from aggressive forms of advanced prostate cancer.”

This year it emerged that Megrahi, who was released from Greenock Prison two years on compassionate grounds, was receiving the drug.

Zytiga was developed at the Institute of Cancer Research in London after the discovery that some prostate cancers can produce their own testosterone. The drug works by blocking the production of male hormones in all tissues, not just the testes, including the adrenal glands and the tumours themselves.