Patients and patents for Sirtex in Europe

Sirtex Medical has treated its first European patient, suffering from advanced secondary liver cancer, with its SIR-Spheres cancer treatment at the Leicester General Hospital, the principal teaching hospital at the University of Leicester in the UK.

The procedure marks the beginning of the roll-out of the technology in Europe. Regulatory approval to market the product was received from the European Union in October.

According to CFO Peter Manley, a similar approach to the one used in the US will be taken, targeting key research and teaching hospitals in the initial phase.

But due to differences in the medical systems in European countries, Manley said that the roll-out of the treatment would not be as fast in Europe as in the US.

The initial phase will be concentrating on only four countries, the UK, France, Germany and Belgium.

As in the US, medical director Dr Bruce Gray will be directly involved in the training for the procedure. Manley said that the company was also planning to hire a medical director to be based in the US.

In addition, the company hopes that some of the hospitals already trained might be able to start training other centres.

In a separate announcement, Sirtex also noted that a patent covering its use of microspheres to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs was granted in Europe.

Manley said that the patent had been with the European patent authorities for a number of years, and was already approved in Australia and the US.