FDA Acknowledges That Mediocre Is Sometimes All We Have

A look at the latest batch of FDA approvals this year.

This opinion piece presents the opinions of the author. It does not necessarily reflect the views of BioSpace.

How well does Avastin work in glioblastoma? Honestly, not very well. But it’s the best we have right now, underscoring the desperate need for better brain cancer treatments. Avastin has long been used off-label in this indication, but it now has full approval--based on a study showing it didn’t extend overall survival but did give some modest improvement in progression-free survival and allowed more patients to get off corticosteroids.

No novel drugs have been approved since our last issue, but the docket is starting to fill for 2018. -KT

Here’s a roundup of these stories and other top FDA actions from the past month.

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