Genentech’s Cancer Medicine Plan Told

Genentech Inc. will introduce its Avastin cancer medicine within 72 hours of winning U.S. approval and preparing to ship the drug, an executive said.

Avastin is the first in a class of new cancer medicines that work by choking off the blood supply to tumors. The Food and Drug Administration has until the end of March to decide whether to approve the drug.

Sales of Avastin may reach $2 billion a year and may climb even higher if the drug works against other tumor types, analysts have said.

“It would be a record for Genentech to do it that fast,” Chief Operating Officer Myrtle Potter said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco.

South San Francisco-based Genentech closed down 40 cent to 90.25 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

From Bloomberg News