European regulators have issued a green light for Amgen and Allergan’s Mvasi, marking the first biosimilar of Roche’s Avastin to be approved in the region.

The drug has been cleared to treat a range of indications spanning carcinoma of the colon or rectum, breast cancer; nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer, renal cell cancer; platinum-sensitive, or platinum-resistant recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer and cervical cancer.

The companies noted that the approval came after trial data showed a high degree of similarity between Mvasi (biosimilar bevacizumab) and its reference drug, “with no clinically meaningful differences in terms of the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity between the products”.

Mvasi is the first product borne out of an alliance between Amgen and Allergan to bag marketing authorisation from the European Commission, “highlighting the success of our joint commitment to developing cancer biosimilars,” noted David Nicholson, chief research and development officer at Allergan.

The drug was cleared in the US in September last year, where it was also the first biosimilar of Roche/Genentech’s mega blockbuster to reach the market.

Avastin pulled in sales of around $7 billion during 2016.