FDA - Approved Degarelix as the New Prostate Cancer Drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new drug that treats advanced prostate cancer offering an additional option for treating the disease mostly afflicting men.

The federal agency said Monday the injectable degarelix of Parsippany, New Jersey-based Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc. slows the growth and progression of prostate cancer by suppressing testosterone hormones. But unlike existing prostate cancer drugs, degarelix does not initially stimulate testosterone production before decreasing the amount of the hormone, a reaction which prompts rather than prevent tumor growth.

Clinical trials of the new drug has shown that testosterone levels of prostate cancer patients who took the drug are the same as those whose testes have been removed as part of the treatment of the disease.

Prostate cancer ranks as the second leading cause of cancer deaths among American men. In 2004, an estimated 29,000 American men from the 190,000 diagnosed with the disease died.