Zelboraf™ (
vemurafenib) is a prescription medication approved to treat
melanoma (a type of
skin cancer) that cannot be treated with surgery or has spread to other areas of the body (metastasized). It is meant for use in people who have an abnormal BRAF V600E gene.
Who Makes This Medication?
Zelboraf is made by Daiichi Sankyo, Inc., for Genentech USA, Inc.
How Does It Work?
Zelboraf is approved for use in people who have an abnormal gene known as the BRAF gene. The BRAF protein helps regulate cell growth. When the BRAF gene is abnormal, the BRAF protein is constantly turned on, causing an abnormal growth of cells, which leads to melanoma.
Zelboraf works by blocking the action of the BRAF protein, and thus preventing abnormal cell growth. By blocking abnormal cell growth, Zelboraf can slow down the progression of melanoma.
Zelboraf has been shown to improve survival time and delay progression of advanced melanoma in people who have not already received treatment. Everyone in the clinical study had a mutation in the BRAF gene, which is associated with melanoma.
In the study, people given Zelboraf had a progression-free survival (which is the amount of time after treatment starts that the cancer does not get worse) of about 5.3 months, compared to 1.6 months in people given a different cancer medication.
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