Sirtex gets OK to start production in Wilmington

Sirtex Medical Ltd. said today that it has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to begin production at a newly built facility in Wilmington.

The facility can now start to supply the company's SIR-Spheres microsphere doses to US treatment centers that will use them to offer Selective Internal Radiation Therapy, or SIRT, said Sirtex, which also has a production facility in Australia.

SIRT is a treatment for inoperable liver cancer that delivers high doses of radiation directly to the site of tumors, the company noted.

"Local US product supply will provide doctors with more flexibility in scheduling SIRT procedures and also enable an increase in the number of treatment days per week,” Sirtex chief executive Gilman Wong said in a statement.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)