Eligard (leuprolide acetate for injectable suspension) is already approved for one-month (7.5mg), three-month (22.5mg) and four-month (30mg) formulations and Eligard 45mg was approved by the FDA on December 16, 2004.
Eligard is a member of a class of drugs known as luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists, also called LHRH agonists. Eligard competes in the LHRH market for the treatment of prostate cancer, which represents a market of approximately $680 million in the US, where the product is marketed by Sanofi-Aventis.
“This achieves one of our key milestones for 2005 with the Eligard six-month product’s potential to capture an increased share of the palliative prostate cancer market,” said Paul Hastings, president and CEO of QLT Inc.
“The extra convenience of the six-month formulation will be appreciated by all patients, but especially by those who have limited mobility, transportation difficulties or who live some distance from their physicians’ offices,” said Mike Duncan, president of QLT USA Inc.