Eight months after an FDA advisory panel recommended approval ofRhone-Poulenc Rorer's Taxotere for advanced breast cancer, theagency Wednesday cleared the yew tree-derived cancer drug formarketing in the U.S.

A spokeswoman for Rorer, of Collegeville, Pa., said the drug will beavailable to patients in three weeks and pricing information will bereleased June 6, 1996.

In addition to the U.S. and Canada, Taxotere is on the market in 24other countries.

The FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee recommendedapproval of the anti-cancer drug in October 1995. (See BioWorldToday, Oct. 18, 1995, p. 1.)

Taxotere will be marketed in the U.S. as a second-line treatment formetastatic breast cancer patients who already have receivedanthracycline-based therapy. Taxotere's side effects include hair loss,reduced white blood cell counts, skin rash, fluid retention,hypersensitivity, nausea and diarrhea.

Taxotere, or docetaxel, is a semi-synthetic form of a class of drugscalled taxoids, which are derived from the yew tree. The drugs attackmicrotubules needed by cancer cells to divide and grow.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of New York, was first on the market witha taxoid drug, called Taxol (paclitaxel), which is approved as asecond-line therapy for advanced breast and ovarian cancer patients.

Rorer, which is 68 percent owned by Paris-based Rhone-PoulencGroup, makes Taxotere from the needles of the European yew tree.Bristol-Myers derives Taxol from the Himalayan yew tree.

Rorer's stock (NYSE:RPR) closed Wednesday at $62.12, up 87cents. _ Charles Craig

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.