Avastin
An anti-angiogenesis antibody used in colorectal, lung and other cancers.
Where Bevacizumab is approved
All regulators →Of the three regulators tracked here, the first to approve Bevacizumab was the US, on 26 Feb 2004. It is approved in 3 of the 3 regulators tracked here.
- 6 FDA-approved biosimilars: Alymsys, Avzivi, Jobevne, Mvasi and others
- 1 EU orphan designation, most recently for treatment of hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (16 Dec 2014, positive)
From the regulators' own registers: FDA Drugs@FDA, the EMA medicines list and Health Canada's Notice of Compliance database. Dates are the first listed approval of a product containing only this substance; combination products and nationally authorised EU medicines are not counted.
What health systems spend on Bevacizumab
All medicines →From NHSBSA Prescription Cost Analysis (Open Government Licence v3.0) and CMS State Drug Utilization Data. Both are gross amounts: neither system publishes its discounts or rebates per drug. Products combining several substances are not counted here.
How Bevacizumab works
All drug targets →- Vascular endothelial growth factor A inhibitor InhibitorTarget: VEGFA vascular endothelial growth factor AChEMBL only
- COVID-19Phase 3
- Coats diseasePhase 3
- NauseaPhase 3
- Pleural effusionPhase 3
- Progressive visual lossPhase 3
- Venous thrombosisPhase 3
- Acute lung injuryPhase 3
- Acute respiratory distress syndromePhase 3
- Age-related macular degenerationPhase 3
- AnemiaPhase 3
Mechanisms and diseases from ChEMBL via the Open Targets Platform (release 26.09), ChEMBL record CHEMBL1201583, CC BY-SA 3.0. Targets checked against the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (2026.3), ligand 6771, CC BY-SA 4.0. Trial phases are not approvals: approved uses are shown from the regulators' own records where we hold them.
NICE appraisals of Bevacizumab
All NICE appraisals →NICE, which decides whether the NHS in England should fund new medicines, has published 14 technology appraisals of Bevacizumab. 14 are current, and 1 of these recommend it for at least some patients.
NICE decisions apply to the NHS in England. In Ireland the HSE decides on reimbursement, advised by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics. Titles, categories and dates link to the guidance on nice.org.uk. © NICE 2026 technology appraisal guidance. Available from www.nice.org.uk/guidance. All rights reserved. Subject to Notice of rights. NICE guidance is prepared for the National Health Service in England. All NICE guidance is subject to regular review and may be updated or withdrawn. NICE accepts no responsibility for the use of its content in this product/publication.
Patient leaflets for Bevacizumab
The package leaflet is the official guide for patients that comes with every medicine. These links go to the regulators that publish it.
- IEIreland: 11 products on the HPRA listEach product record links to the HPRA, which publishes the leaflet and SmPC.
- EU
- UKUnited Kingdom: Search MHRA ProductsPatient information leaflets and SmPCs for UK-licensed products.
- USUnited States: Search DailyMedFDA-approved labels, including patient and medication guides.
Leaflets differ between brands and countries; always read the one that comes with your own medicine. This is regulatory information, not medical advice.
Reference identifiers for Bevacizumab
- ATC code
- L01XC07
- ChEMBL
- CHEMBL1201583
- DrugBank
- DB00112
- CAS number
- 216974-75-3
- FDA UNII
- 2S9ZZM9Q9V
- Wikidata
- Q413299
- Wikipedia
- Bevacizumab
Codes that identify this medicine in other databases, from Wikidata (CC0), matched by its ChEMBL ID. The ATC code is the WHO classification of what the medicine is used for.
What Avastin is used for
Avastin is a vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor indicated for the treatment of: Metastatic colorectal cancer, in combination with intravenous fluorouracil-based chemotherapy for first- or second-line treatment. ( 1.1 ) Metastatic colorectal cancer, in combination with fluoropyrimidine-irinotecan- or fluoropyrimidine-oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy for second-line treatment in patients who have progressed on a first-line bevacizumab product-containing regimen. ( 1.1 ) Limitations of Use : Avastin is not indicated for adjuvant treatment of colon cancer. ( 1.1 ) Unresectable, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer, in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel for first-line treatment. ( 1.2 ) Recurrent glioblastoma in adults. ( 1.3 ) Metastatic renal cell carcinoma in combination with interferon alfa. ( 1.4 ) Persistent, recurrent, or m…
How it works
12.1 Mechanism of Action Bevacizumab binds VEGF and prevents the interaction of VEGF to its receptors (Flt-1 and KDR) on the surface of endothelial cells. The interaction of VEGF with its receptors leads to endothelial cell proliferation and new blood vessel formation in in vitro models of angiogenesis. Administration of bevacizumab to xenotransplant models of colon cancer in nude (athymic) mice caused reduction of microvascular growth and inhibition of metastatic disease progression.
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How this page is built
The facts on this page are pulled directly from official U.S. FDA datasets — they are not written from memory. Each field below names the dataset it came from, so you can check it yourself.
- FDA Drug Label (openFDA) ↗ Indications, mechanism of action and pharmacologic class
- Drugs@FDA ↗ First FDA approval date and the company holding the application
- FDA Drug Shortage Database ↗ Current US supply / shortage status
Plain-English summaries and drug-class explainers are written and reviewed by Sreepriya Prasannan (MSc Digital Transformation of Life Sciences (Innopharma Education / Griffith College); MSc & BSc Botany). Data is retrieved automatically from the sources above and cross-checked with AI-assisted verification (Anthropic's Claude) — brand and generic names are matched against the exact FDA product record so that a combination product or a different formulation cannot be mistaken for the drug on this page. An editor reviews the result before publication. We describe this in full in our editorial standards and corrections policy. The FDA data on this page was last retrieved on 8 Oct 2026. How every register is built: methodology · fixes we have made: corrections log.