Pharmaceutical firm Novartis (NOV) Wednesday revealed the approval of three medicines in Japan - Equa or vildagliptin for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, Exforge or valsartan/amlodipine for high blood pressure, and Afinitor or everolimus for advanced kidney cancer.
Equa has been approved as monotherapy or in combination with a sulfonylurea. The approval is for doses of 50 mg twice daily, or 50 mg once daily, depending on the needs of the individual patient. An estimated 7 million people in Japan have type 2 diabetes.
Exforge has been approved as a single-pill combination of two treatments for high blood pressure: Diovan or valsartan and amlodipine. Exforge has been shown to be effective across all grades of high blood pressure with placebo-like tolerability, Novartis said. High blood pressure affects an estimated 40 million people in Japan, nearly a third of the population.
Afinitor in tablet form has been approved for the treatment of patients with non-resectable, metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Each year, more than 10,000 people in Japan are diagnosed with kidney cancer.
A once-daily therapy, Afinitor is the first mTOR inhibitor approved to treat advanced kidney cancer patients in Japan.
NVS closed Tuesday's regular trade at $53.70, up from the previous close of $52.88, on 4.41 million shares.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com