As we count down to the launch of the Avastin hearing, BioCentury reports that seven advisors will participate at the June 28-29 hearing on FDA's proposed withdrawal of bevacizumab’s metastatic breast cancer indication -- including five who voted at a panel last July to remove the indication and one who doesn't have a vote.
Four of the five who previously voted against the Genentech Inc. drug are ODAC members: Ralph Freedman from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; Brent Logan from the Medical College of Wisconsin; Mikkael Sekeres from the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute; and Wyndham Wilson from the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute. The fifth is patient representative and temporary voting member Natalie Compagni-Portis.
The non-voting member is industry representative Gregory Curt from AstraZeneca’s oncology division. Curt was a non-voting member on the July panel. The final advisor participating next week is ODAC member Frank Balis, who was not on the committee last July. He is from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Director Karen Midthun (who is the presiding officer for the hearing) said some committee members who had participated in previous meetings on the breast cancer indication had rotated off the committee and will be replaced before the June 28-29 hearing.
Caution – fireworks can be dangerous.
