Prostrakan, the Borders-based specialist drugs firm, yesterday said it had received earlier-than-expected approval in the UK for its cancer drug Abstral.
The news comes on the heels of US regulatory approval for Sancuso, the company's skin patch for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.
This latest development means that Galashiels-based ProStrakan can now complete UK pricing negotiations and launch planning by the end of 2008, the company said.
Abstral, formerly branded as Rapinyl, is licensed from the Swedish pharmaceutical company Orexo, and the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency has already issued an opinion recommending approval of the drug in June.
ProStrakan and Orexo launched Abstral in Sweden, the reference states, in August through their Nordic joint venture.
Wilson Totten, chief executive of ProStrakan, said Abstral was expected "to generate significant revenues".
Its early UK approval "means that we can bring Abstral to our home market even sooner than had been planned and we expect it to make a material contribution in 2009", he added.
Shares in ProStrakan, created by the merger of Strakan and French biotechnology group ProSkelia, yesterday climbed 0.5p to 98.75p.
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