TopoTarget’s new antidote for accidental tissue exposure during chemotherapy, Savene™, becomes 'gold standard'

TopoTarget, the Danish biotechnology company, announces the launch of Savene™, which the company believes will be the ‘gold standard’ treatment for accidental tissue exposure to anthracycline anti-cancer agents.

The launch was announced at the international oncology congress, ESMO, in Istanbul, where Professor Giuseppe Giaccone, the internationally recognised oncologist from Free University, Amsterdam, presented the scientific results of TopoTarget’s studies with Savene™.

Savene™ is the first drug registered to treat extravasation, i.e. an accident in which anthracyclines (chemotherapeutics) leak from a blood vessel into the surrounding tissue. Healthy tissue exposed to these drugs can be severely damaged and such accidents can necessitate surgery followed by plastic surgery.

At the congress in Istanbul, Professor Giaccone presented the final results of two studies undertaken by TopoTarget to evaluate Savene™’s therapeutic effect. These revealed that Savene™ limited tissue damage such that surgery was not required in 98% (53 of 54) of the patients who received the antidote. Surgery would have been necessary in the majority of these patients had they not received the drug. The treatment was well tolerated, allowing most of the patients to continue their cancer therapy without delay.

The results attracted considerable attention at the conference, because no drugs have previously been registered for the treatment of this complication. Savene™ is now expected to become the ‘gold standard’ therapy for extravasation.

TopoTarget received EU marketing approval for Savene™ at the end of July 2006 and today’s presentation marks the start of TopoTarget’s sales drive in Europe.