Shahrukh Khan launches cancer drug

Taking a break from his shooting schedule, Bollywood heartthrob Shahrukh Khan launched a new cancer drug developed by biotechnology major Biocon in Bangalore on Sunday evening.

Along with Biocon Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Shahrukh Khan unveiled BIOMAb-EGFR, a drug developed over a four-year period and designed to specifically target and block the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which causes cancer cells to spread.

At the launch, Shahrukh Khan brought up his own smoking habit and confessed he was ashamed about it. The actor said he had been desperately trying to kick the habit for the sake of his children. “I am inviting this disease by smoking. I am ashamed of it. But, I am trying to kick the habit for the sake of my children. I have already reduced it to a great extent, bit is a weakness and requires time to give up”, he said.

The Bollywood heartthrob also shared with the gathering why cancer relief is so close to his heart. “I probably would not have been here had I not witnessed the death of my father due to cancer in 1981. It is not just endorsing a product. It is something, which has importance for me as I have seen the suffering of people dear to me from close quarters”, he said. Even Shahrukh Khan’s mother had died of a similar disease in 1991.

Expressing concern over the increasing number of cancer patients, Shahrukh Khan hoped the rapid advances in science would eliminate the disease. He also said people should have a healthy lifestyle and quit habits that lead to diseases like cancer. “Do whatever it takes to prevent it, have regular check-ups. Do not have the attitude that it will not happen to me. It can happen to the best of us”, he cautioned.

Managing Director of Biocon Ms Shaw said the drug is the first of its kind to be clinically developed in India and is the first anti-EGFR humanized monoclonal antibody for cancer to be made available anywhere in the world.

The cancer drug developed by Biocon is designed to treat solid tumours of epithelial origin such as head and neck cancers. According to Shaw, head and neck cancers accounted for 30 per cent of all cancer cases in India, where the incidence of cancer is one for every thousand.