Kuwait City: The Ministry of Health in Oman has issued a clarification on the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval for the Larotrectinab drug, known as Vitrakvi.
The statement said the drug was tested on a limited number of patients by the US FDA (55 patients, including 12 patients under the age of 18).
Preliminary results showed that 73 per cent of these patients responded to the treatment within the first nine months of treatment, but the percentage started to decline gradually until it reached 39 per cent during the first year.
The ministry said the drug works in an iterative manner through preventing the growth of tumours caused by a rare genetic disorder (genetic mutation causing some kinds of cancers) associated with this genetic defect but not all the cancer types.
The drug has a number of side effects that have been observed by the patients who have been treated by this medicine like fatigue, nausea, vomiting, high liver enzymes, dizziness, diarrhea and constipation.