Genentech skin cancer drug with deep Bay Area ties wins early FDA approval

A skin cancer drug aimed at stopping the disease from using the so-called hedgehog pathway was approved by the Food and Drug Administration more than a month ahead of schedule.
Vismodegib, a once-a-day capsule that will be marketed by South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. as Erivedge, was approved for use by patients with basal cell carcinoma that has spread to other parts of the body, has returned after surgery or cannot be treated with surgery or radiation.
The drug was worked on by Genentech and Lexington, Mass.-based Curis Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS), but its Bay Area roots run deep. Labs at the University of California, San Francisco, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute and Stanford University worked on the drug.

Genentech seeks FDA OK for skin cancer drug

Once ignored by drug-development companies, a treatment for a disfiguring skin cancer could hit the market as soon as next year.
Genentech Inc., which has been working with Curis Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS) of Cambridge, Mass., has submitted a new drug application to the Food and Drug Administration for its drug, vismodegib. It is aimed at patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma for whom surgery is considered inappropriate.