FDA to Take a Second Look at Breast Cancer Drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday confirmed it would give drug-maker Genentech a second chance to keep Avastin on the market as a treatment for breast cancer.

The FDA announced in December that it was pulling the cancer drug's approval for breast cancer after studies showed it did not appear to help the progression of the disease, but did expose patients to serious, sometimes fatal, side effects.

Avastin is a blockbuster cancer drug with sales upward of $6 billion last year. It is still approved for use in patients with lung, kidney and colon cancer and is in clinical trials for use in women with ovarian cancer.

The hearing, scheduled for late June, will be in front of the FDA's Oncological Drugs Advisory Committee. That same group voted last summer to withdraw Avastin's approval for breast cancer.