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Eisai Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, President & CEO: Haruo Naito, “Eisai”) announced that it has received orphan drug designation from Japan's Ministry of Labour, Health and Welfare for its multikinase inhibitor lenvatinib mesylate (“lenvatinib”) for the treatment of thyroid cancer.

Lenvatinib is an investigational anti-angiogenic agent that, according to the firm, has a unique inhibitory profile against the receptor tyrosine kinase family of kinases.

The drug works as a potent inhibitor of the VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) receptor, VEGFR2, plus various other types of kinases involved in angiogenesis and tumor proliferation, and it is therefore hoped that it will prove to be an effective weapon against the disease.

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