WASHINGTON (February 18, 2010)--Genentech's blockbuster blood cancer drug Rituxan has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a new use.

The FDA says Genentech, the biotech unit of Swiss drug maker Roche Group, can market Rituxan for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the second-most common leukemia in adults.

It's already approved for that use in Europe.

The slow-growing cancer, in which bone marrow makes faulty white blood cells that don't fight infection well, affects about 86,000 Americans.

Rituxan is approved for several other uses, including treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

A biologic drug produced in living cells, it is Roche's second-bestselling medicine, with global sales of about $5.9 billion in 2009.