First FDA approval for cGVHD treatment

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded the approval of Imbruvica (ibrutinib) for the treatment of adult patients with chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD) after failure of one or more treatments.

This is the first FDA-approved therapy for the treatment of cGVHD and following the announcement there was a jump in the share value of US drugmaker AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), which is jointly developing and commercializing Imbruvica through its Pharmacyclics subsidiary along with Janssen Biotech, part of US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).