Europe gives green light to AbbVie hepatitis C medicine, others

[November 21, 2014] LONDON (Reuters) - European regulators recommended approval for AbbVie's hepatitis C drug dasabuvir, an experimental all-oral regimen for patients infected with the virus that could be an alternative to long courses of a combination of pills and injections.

Sanofi's eliglustat, a medicine to treat the rare genetic disorder type 1 Gaucher disease that was approved in the United States in August, was also recommended in Europe.

Boehringer Ingelheim's lung-disorder drug nintedanib and Merck & Co's blood clot preventer vorapaxar, were also all recommended for approval on Friday.

The regulator also gave the nod to Novartis' psoriasis drug secukinumab, which was recommended for approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month, and Celgene's apremilast to treat psoriatic arthritis.

Recommendations for marketing approval by the European Medicine Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use are usually endorsed by the European Commission within a couple of months.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young)

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