The biotech is sendinga letter to healthcare professionals about the case of a 70-year-old man who was being treated for psoriasis for more than four years with its med, and developed a rare brain infection known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML.
Genentech says there are no other cases of confirmed PML in patients treated with Raptiva, but there has been a report of a 62-year old patient treated with Raptiva who developed progressive neurologic symptoms and died of an unknown cause. The risk of brain infection had already been noted on Rituxan's label.
Coincidentially, Genentech last month revised a warning on its Rituxan drug Rituxan to note a rheumatoid arthritis patient who was treated with the medicine and died from PML (back story).