By Manas Mishra and Dania Nadeem

(Reuters) – Epizyme Inc on Thursday priced its treatment for a ultra rare, slow growing type of cancer that affects soft tissue at $15,500 per month after getting an approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Epithelioid sarcoma (ES) affects nearly 800 people in the United States and in most cases begins in the soft tissue under the skin of a finger, hand, forearm, lower leg or foot.

The treatment, Tazverik, is approved for patients aged 16 and above and comes after a panel of experts to the U.S. regulator voted unanimously in favor of the drug’s approval in December.

The company said its commercial launch plans were under way, and expects to make Tazverik available across the United States within 10 days.

The drug was approved under accelerated approval pathway and is contingent upon the results of a confirmatory trial.

Tazverik is also currently being tested for other types of cancer including follicular lymphoma, which is under review by the FDA.

Epizyme has submitted a marketing application for the drug’s use on follicular lymphoma patients who have received at least two prior lines of therapy.

(Reporting by Dania Nadeem and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

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