Pfizer, Exelixis cancer drugs get FDA approval for wider use

Cancer treatments from Pfizer Inc and Exelixis Inc won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for expanded use in previously untreated patients.

Pfizer’s Bosulif was expanded to treat newly-diagnosed adult patients with a rare, chronic form of blood cancer. The drug was first approved in 2012 to treat patients with resistance or intolerance to prior therapy for cancer.

The U.S. regulator expanded the label of Exelixis’s drug, Cabometyx, to treat patients with the most common form of kidney cancer.

The drug is currently approved for use in patients with advanced kidney cancer who have received a prior treatment of drugs that block blood vessel growth in tumors. It was first approved in 2016.