FDA Approves Drug for Rare Blood Cancer

The Wall Street Journal (online registration required): Pharmacyclics Inc. PCYC +3.47% said it would sell its drug Imbruvica for more than $130,000 annually, making it one of the most expensive new cancer drugs on the market.

The drug, which will be co-marketed with Johnson & Johnson JNJ -0.24% and is known generically as ibrutinib, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday to treat patients with mantle cell lymphoma, a rare and aggressive type of blood cancer for which nearly 5,000 patients in the U.S. undergo treatment, according to Kantar Health, a consulting firm.

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