From correspondents in Delhi, India, 09:31 PM IST

Biocon Ltd, country's leading healthcare company, Friday said it has launched the cancer drug Abraxane in partnership with the Abu Dhabi-based pharmaceutical firm Neopharma in that Gulf nation.

Abraxane can be used for treatment of breast cancer after failure of a combination therapy for metastatic disease or relapse within six months of chemotherapy.

'The drug is going to change the way breast cancer is treated through chemotherapy as it is a combination of chemotherapy and a biotech formulation,' Biocon chairman and managing director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said in a statement.

'As it uses nanotechnology and a protein, it allows you to deliver a very cyto-toxic agent in a very targeted way to the tumour and will hence make a huge difference to cancer patients,' Shaw said in the statement.

Abraxane is approved for marketing in 35 countries and has several pending patent applications in India relating to it.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)