Breast cancer drug OK’d for wider use

Novartis AG won U.S. approval to market the drug Femara for women who have finished standard therapy for early-stage breast cancer, the company said Friday.

Femara cut the risk of death by 39 percent for certain breast cancer patients in a Novartis-funded study of post-menopausal women who had taken the drug tamoxifen for five years to keep the cancer at bay.