Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares gained 9.6 percent after it said its brain cancer treatment is scheduled to be reviewed June 14 by the Food and Drug Administration.
Guilford shares rose $2.75 to a record $31.50.
The Baltimore-based biotechnology company said yesterday that the product, the Gliadel wafer, is implanted in the cavity created when a surgeon removes a cancerous tumor from the brain.
The wafer slowly dissolves, releasing the chemotherapeutic drug it contains to the tumor site over a period of time.
The company says the implant was developed to prevent relapses and reduce the side effects of chemotherapy by applying drugs directly to cancer cells.
Guilford already has FDA approval to distribute Gliadel to neurosurgeons who have patients with a recurrence of malignant brain cancer.
The FDA's Oncological Drugs Advisory Committee will meet to discuss the benefits of the treatment, and will recommend whether the FDA should formally approve it for sale. The FDA usually, but not always, follows the advice of its advisory panel.
Pub Date: 5/11/96
