S-P's Intron A Approved For NHL

Schering-Plough Corp has received approval from the US Food and DrugAdministration to market Intron A (recombinant interferon-alfa-2b) for the first-line adjunctive treatment of advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Prior to the approval, an FDA advisory committee, which voted unanimously in support of the new indication, concluded that Intron A did not improve overall survival in patients with low-grade, rapidly-progressing NHL, but did delay disease progression (Marketletter October 27).

Intron A is also approved in the USA for chronic hepatitis B and C, hairy cell leukemia, AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma, venereal warts and as an adjuvant therapy for malignant melanoma.