First subcutaneous immunotherapy for lung and liver cancers added to PBS

Subcutaneous atezolizumab takes just seven minutes to administer, compared with 30-60-minute-long infusion required for the IV formulation.

Thousands of Australians with advanced lung and liver cancer can now access subsidised subcutaneous immunotherapy that cuts treatment time to seven minutes.

On 1 August, Roche’s subcutaneous formulation of atezolizumab (Tecentriq SC) became the first such programmed death-ligand 1 immunotherapy on the PBS.