The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Swiss drugmaker Roche's Cotellic to be used in combination with the company's Zelboraf drug to treat BRAF V600 mutation-positive advanced melanoma.
Roche is counting on the addition of Cotellic to help it revive flagging sales of five-year-old Zelboraf, which dropped 25 percent during the first nine months of 2015 and has been under intense pressure from rivals' drugs as the standard of care moves to combination therapy.