The product is the only six-month prostate cancer drug therapy available in Europe, according to the firm.
The drug is delivered by subcutaneous injection, where it forms a gel-like deposit and secretes the active ingredient over the six-month period. The technique uses QLT USA's Atrigel drug delivery platform, intended for the extended release of drug therapies.
MediGene had already received approval of its one-and three-month formulations, but the six-month dosage is seen as the major Eligard product for the company.
The six-month dosage has been available in the US since 2005, and now represents half of all Eligard sales in the country. Worldwide sales of the drug totalled $120.7m in 2006.
"Only a few months after launch [in the US] it became the top-selling dosage of Eligard," said Dr Peter Heinrich, CEO of MediGene.
"We anticipate a similar development in Europe as well and assume that this patient-friendly dosage will further boost Eligard sales."
Outside the US, the six-month version will only be available in Germany for the time being, but the company does have plans to introduce it across Europe as well. Although representatives from MediGene were reluctant to propose time scales, the one- and three- month formulations of the drug completed pan-European launches in December 2006 after their initial introduction in Germany in 2004.
The six-month formulation is currently in the approval process for other European countries, so it is likely that they will see the drug become available over the next couple of years. MediGene is entitled to a milestone payment on the launch of the new dosage.
Price-wise, the new dosage will be comparatively no more expensive than using the other dosages – i.e. the six-month version will be twice the cost of the three-month formulation.
While the company highlights the fact that this is the first and only six-month treatment available in Europe, there are similar products available in the US that work using a similar mechanism.
Eligard is for the treatment of patients suffering from advanced, hormone-dependent prostate cancer, and is an LH-RH (luteinising hormone-releasing hormone) agonist which suppresses tumour growth by reducing testosterone levels in the body. The six-month dosage contains 45mg of the active ingredient.
The drug is manufactured by QLT USA, from whom MediGene acquired the licence for European commercialisation of the product in 2001. According to QLT, the worldwide market for prostate cancer treatments is estimated at $1.5bn (€1.1bn), $800m of which is in the US.